Bird of Prey
by A Dyslexic Writer
Summary: Shirou should have realize that Alaya wouldn't take rejection kindly. Even if he wouldn't be her Counter Guardian, she still had plans for him. Dropped into the middle of a war game, Shirou has to figure out what is going on and why Alaya sent him there in the first place. He just knew Archer was somehow in on this sick joke. (Sekirei!Shirou & Female!Shirou)(Not based on In Flight)
1. Chapter 1

It was the end of the road. No more point in struggling.

Emiya Shirou's arm were bound to a large stone table covered in runes to stop him from accessing any of his Od in order to try to break free. Even more runes had been edged into his skin. Runes meant to slow the bleeding and keep him alive as long as possible once the experimenting started. He had one last long horrifying experience ahead of him before he was finally allowed to die.

They had caught him, after five years of being on the run, they had come across him when he was far too weak to put up a fight. He could only hope that the friends and family he was leaving behind wouldn't try to rescue him. If they got hurt because of this, he would never forgive himself.

Ironically, after two years of being chased, the Clock Tower's Enforcers only found him because he had beaten them to one of there targets. Shirou had been hiding out in Mexico when it happened, a Dead Apostle had targeted a nearby town. The magus knew what would happen if he went. He knew that there was no way he would be able to fight the Apostle and then slip away unnoticed, but he couldn't bring himself to turn his back on the hundreds of people who would have died if he didn't go. When the Enforcers found him, he had already used up everything he had to kill the Apostle and was taken without even putting up a fight.

His was going to die. Funny, he always assumed he would have no regrets when he went. But now that it was finally time, he regretted not spending more time with the people he loved. For leaving them without even ever saying goodbye. Rin was going to be furious with him.

"You honestly couldn't turn your back on someone to save your own life, could you, Emiya-kun?" Shirou struggled against his restraints to look towards the voice, one so family that he could have pegged it anywhere. Standing up against the wall with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face was Tohsaka Rin, her long black hair reaching down past her shoulders and she was dressed in her usual bright red long sleeved shirt.

How was she there? The answer to that was simple enough to Shirou; she wasn't.

"Alaya..." Shirou mumbled looking away from the Collective Will of Humanity. He wasn't at all surprised to see her there, he knew she would find him when he was reaching his end.

"My, you are rather quick on the pick up, Emiya-kun." The fake Rin said with a childish smile, the kind Rin used to get him off balance, right before she would let him have it. "I guess that means you know why I am here too. So how about we make a deal..."

"Go to hell." Shirou said, closing his eyes. "I know what you want and I will have nothing to do with it. I will not be one of your Counter Guardians."

Alaya glared at him. "You know, you could at least wait for me to make my offer before you shot me down like that. How rude can you be?"

"We both know there is nothing you can offer me that will convince me to give you my soul. I know full well what lies down that path." Shirou said calmly. He didn't even feel the slightest temptation at her offer. No amount of power or time with his friends was worth the cost.

"I suppose we do both know that. Still, I can't let them experiment on you. If more people try to create their own Reality Marbles it could be problematic." Alaya said with a sigh before starting to tap at her temple in that way Rin always did. "So I suppose you will just have to spontaneously combust." Shirou didn't react. What did he care? Either way he would be dead. "But, even if you won't sell me your soul, that doesn't mean I can't make use of it. It just means I need to be more creative."

"What?.." Shirou said, looking over at the Will of Humanity as she snapped her fingers.

Pain shot through his entire body as he was engulfed in flames. The world burned away around him and his life was extinguished.

* * *

Shirou had no idea what was going on. All his senses were not so much blinded as they were given him information he couldn't comprehend. He felt like he was flouting in blood, so thick that he could hardly move his arms. His entire body felt so weak and even when he opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything around him. He was so cold.

Struggling, he lefted up one of his hands only to have it brush up against something. Frowning, he began to feel at it with the flat of his hand. It was smooth, rounded and cold to the touch. It took a few seconds for him to realize that it was glass. Moving his other hand, he felt behind him to find a similar surface. He was surrounded on all sides by it, in the middle of some kind of glass container filled with some kind of liquid.

Panic, the instinctive fear of drowning was starting to take him as Shirou lifted his hands to his mouth only to find a tube feeding into him through a mask, pumping air into his lungs.

What the hell was going on? It was as if he was in some kind of science fiction move... being experimented on. His eyes pushed wide open, ignoring the liquid around him and he started to struggle against his container, hitting weakly at it with his hands, unable to so much as scratch the surface.

A need to escape, to reach air and freedom was pushing down on him. He needed more. More strength to fight. In the back of his mind he heard the cocking of a gun, a trigger to active his magic circuits. Five magic circuits came to life, pushing prana into his limbs, making him stronger as he reinforced his body. He smashed his fist into the glass again and again. The liquid inside of the container shifting about as he through everything he had against his prison, but the glass didn't even crack.

He needed more. He needed swords.

'Trace on!'

The familiar feel of the hilts of Kanshou and Bakuya entered his hands, filling him with even greater strength. He pulled back his arms and slashed at the glass and was met with next to no resistance as the blades sliced clean through. Then with are hard kick to the damaged spot he shattered the glass.

The liquid poured out all over the steel tile floor carrying Shirou along with it. His hands dropped his swords as he reached up to pull to tube out of his throat before taking his first gasps for air between coughs.

All of his senses were still dampened. He could hear things moving around him, but his ears were too filled with the odd liquid to hear clearly. He tried to wipe the stuff out if his eyes, but his arms were still covered in it, making such an effort useless. Even his nose was filled with the stuff.

He felt someone grab him and he grabbed them back, throwing them to the ground beneath him. With the feel of clothe underneath his fingers, he quickly cleaned his eyes to the point where he could stand to keep them open.

He was in some kind of lab, with a man in a white lab coat pinned to the ground underneath him. The man was at least twice Shirou's, which came as an shock. Shirou had been a rather large individual, used to looking down on his fellow countrymen.

Before he could come to understand what was going on, some of the people around him's voices started to come through. "The subject winged itself!" "Where did those swords come from!?" "Someone get security in here!"

He looked up as men with assault rifles rushed into the room and started to level them at him. Seeing again that these people were heads taller than him, Shirou realized that the man wasn't tall, Shirou was now small.

He grabbed his weapons and moved into to take out the guards before they could open fire. He moved in too quickly for the men to even properly bring up there weapons and slashed to guns into pieces as well as cutting the men's arms, severing the tendons in their arms to stop them from trying anything more.

Pushing past them he moved into a long white corridor and started running. He didn't know what was going on, or where he was, or where he was going, but he needed to put some distance between him and everyone else so that he would have time to think.

He slipped into a single stall bathroom that he passed in the hall and quickly locked the door.

Leaning up against the wall he sighed. His arms and legs with screaming in protest from his reinforcement, as if they weren't used to the strain. Actually they felt like he had never even used them. He was confused, and the sudden alarm going on in the building didn't help him clear his head. He needed to get away to somewhere safe. His eyes quickly moved up to the vent above the sink. It was rather large, and with his smaller body, he could probably navigate it well enough to moved away from where security cameras would no doubt have seen him last.

Climbing up onto the sink's table top, he slashed at the vent cover, cutting it to ribbons before letting his swords disappear. But before he started to climb in, he caught a glance of his reflection in the mirror out of the corner of his eye and froze.

He slowly turned his head and found a young preteen girl with deep tanned skin looking back at him with large golden eyes. Her long light lavender pink hair was soaking wet, plastering it to her shoulders.

Shirou closed his eye and counted to ten before looking down at his... her own thin naked body. "Alaya... you... bitch." She growled starting to shake with anger. Shirou hated the World. She really did.

* * *

 **An intro to a story in which Shirou is reincarnated as a Sekirei. She will either be a random scrapped number or be a cloning experiment gone rogue, haven't decided. Also haven't decided what she actually does. Either join's the discipline squad, the main characters, or one of the other groups in the Plan. Depending on which one she joins, it will change what her motives are.**

 **Name: Kurogane - Black Metal - Iron**


	2. Chapter 2

Shirou was hiding inside of the air vents, taking the moments safety to reexamine his situation and try to come up with a plan.

Suddenly finding himself a girl was probably on the top of the list of strangest things to have ever happened to him... her. But at least she had an explanation for that. Alaya had taken her soul and stuck it in some other body. She had no clue what everything else was about.

Why had she been in that fluid chamber? Had they been experimenting on this body? If so, for what reason?

Shirou was doing her best to try to reason through it, but the sudden lose of the family jewels was rather jarring for her.

Considering that his soul was now in her body, it was most likely that either the original soul had left the body after some kind of accident that should have resulted in death, or there was never a soul to began with and the body was just a vegetable up until now. Or perhaps he had been in the body since it was first born and he... she was only just starting to wake up.

Two of these options would imply that she had always been in the lab up until this point and that she was somehow created there, like a homunculus of some type. It seemed like the most likely explanation. It would also explain all of the Magic Circuits.

Shirou had been shocked when she slowed down long enough to start trying to project clothes for herself to cover her body and on further inspection of her magic circuits found that there were far more of them than she should have had. She wasn't even quite sure how many she did have, somewhere in the hundreds. Even though she only really could make use of thirty of them at the moment, it was already more than she was used to owning. The structure of the circuits reminded her more of Saber's magic core than human magic circuits.

It was the kind of thing one found in some Greater Elementals, Dragons and the True Ancestors. So what did it mean for it to be in the body of a small girl in a test tube? Was that the reason those people were experimenting on her? Most magus would give up a good deal to have such a test subject. Shirou had personal experience with that fact.

Her hand moved down to rest on her midriff, where the majority of her activated circuits had gathered. On a spot, just above her naval, was a mark. It was only slightly darker than the rest of her skin, seeming to be as natural as a birthmark, but the shape of it was way too distinct to be a birthmark. It had the appearance of a bird above a yin yang symbol with two sets of tomoe marks on either side of it. Whatever the mark was, it seemed to be directly connected with her magic circuits. Though what the mark meant, she didn't have a clue.

She wanted answers. The fastest way to get them would be to turn herself in and hope that the people around her would be friendly enough to explain just what is going on, then she would have to escape again later on down the line with more eyes on her. It was a dangerous option and one that was about as likely to work as stopping Berserker with a pillow.

Kidnapping someone and forcing them to answer her questions was much safer... for her anyways, but with the alarms blaring and people searching for her, it would be hard to single anyone out and hold them for long enough to get the answers she was looking for. She would need to sneak away and come back later once things had finally calmed down.

But how exactly would she escape? Move up to the top floor and hope that there was a nearby roof top she could reach? Make her way down to the ground floor and try to bust out or hope there was a crowd she could fade into? Hope that there was a back exit she could force her way out?

She didn't know the building's layout or the surrounding buildings. Going to the top floor would most likely get her stuck and she would have nowhere to hide.

Her appearance was too unusual to blend into a crowd. She would be spotted in an instant and most likely the people who kept a small girl in a tank would not have any problem with firing into a group of civilians. She couldn't risk innocent lives just to make her get away. So she would have to try for a back down policy and hope her luck was going to change.

"That's about as likely as hell freezing over." As if the World was reading her thoughts, cold air blasted through the vents, causing her to shiver. "Fuck you Alaya!" Shirou hissed as she tried to shield herself from the cold wind. They must have figured out she was in the vents and were making things colder in order to drive her out. She should have projected warming clothes instead of the black leotard she had made. It was something extremely simple and easy for her to project without worrying about it fading away on her in a sudden laps of focus. She had expected to be fighting in those clothes, not trying to drive away the cold.

Moving to an exit panel, she placed her hand on the metal cover, quickly using a spell to strip the screws that were holding the cover in place before carefully removing it, trying not to make any sound.

Quickly checking for any guards, she dropped to the ground out of the way of the arctic air. "Hopefully I can find the stairway before anyone... spots... me..." Shirou mumbled as she looked up from the spot she just dropped down from. Right over the open vent face was a security camera pointed right at her. "Oh come on!" She shouted as she heard foot steps coming in her direction with people talking into headsets. This was just not her day.

Turning away from the noise she dashed down the hall, keeping an eye open for any stairs or an elevator. It was only know the she was exploring the place outside of the vents that she realized just how huge the building was. She had been in castles that weren't as big as this one floor seemed to be. She ran past four entire long hallways, disarming any guards that popped up in her way.

As she ran down one of the halls a one foot thick metal barrier slide down from the ceiling, blocking her path. Turning she could see another one closing on her right and another behind her the way she had come. The only way left open was the left. Looking off in that direction, Shirou smelt something off. It was the scent of volcanic ashe mixed together with blood and iron. Something big was in that direction.

"They are trying to shepherd me into a trap." She mumbled turning back to the heavy metal barrier in front of her. She slashed at it with her Noble Phantasms, cutting a triangular hole in the mundane metal before jumping through.

The power didn't come after Shirou. Instead, two smaller individuals who had gone unnoticed at first being of the other's overwhelming presence began to follow. The two were coming fast, moving at a speed that easily outstripped Shirou's own, even with her reinforced steps. It wasn't long before they caught up to her.

Shirou first spotted them in the reflection off of her white blade. Two women, somewhere in their late teens early twenties, and both giving off far more prana than what could be produced by humans.

"Where do you think you're running to!" The lunging kick to Shirou's exposed back had been inticipated, and she quickly rolled to the side, leaving the attacker to fly straight by before she performed her counter attack on the girl's own backside.

The girl skidded to a stop and turned just as Shirou was slicing towards her exposed shoulders and thighs, trying to cripple rather than kill her. But too Shirou's shock the girl deflected her attacks using nothing but her gloved hands. The back handed swings caught onto the edge of Kanshou and Bakuya's blades, blades that could easily cut through normal steel, but the girl's gloved hands didn't receive so much as a scratch.

It wasn't impossible. Kuzuki had managed to do pretty much the same during the Holy Grail War, going so far as to break the traced Phantasms with his fists after Caster magically reinforced them. But that was back when Shirou was just a rookie with her tracings and against a man with the power of a servant of magic backing him up.

The girl throw a punch which Shirou absorbed with Kanshou, using its momentum to help her pivot into a slash with Bakuya towards the bottom of the outstretched arm. Seeing the attack coming, the girl moved back giving Shirou some room to intercept the second attacker.

Two sets of metal claws were being thrust down at her head which Shirou quickly blocked, parrying away the force behind the attacks before her swords got locked by the metal claws out to the side.

The first girl came back, aiming a punch towards the back of Shirou's head, so she ducked down, letting the punch pass over her as she brought one foot off the ground, kicking the girl hard in the stomach, launching the girl back across the hall. Then Shirou abandoned her swords, taking the claw using by surprise as she traced a new pair and slashed at her in order to drive the woman back.

Some space gained Shirou turned a sword on each of her opponents as she took a chance to recover and assess her situation.

Being double teamed from both sides in a small hallway by two fast opponents was not ideal at all. The fact that both enemies were completely unknown to her was another thing that the Magus didn't like. They were not human, that much was for sure, but she didn't know there limits or there weaknesses.

The fist fighter girl was petite with long pink hair that was worn up in a one sided ponytail. She was dressed in a sort of black short kimono baring the same bird yin yang symbol that was on Shirou's own stomach. Her fighter's stance had her body all wound up like a spring ready to do a large lung and strike at any moment and the smirk on her face was that of someone who loved fighting a little bit too much.

The woman with the claws was taller and more developed in curtain areas. They she didn't look on any way's old, her pale skin and wild white hair made her look a little unhealthy. From the neck down she was completely covered in bandages with the only other clothes she was wearing being a studded choker and kimono like the other girl's, only this one was practically cut to ribbons.

But what really caught Shirou's eye was her weapons. The polished claws with their arm guards might not have been of the most efficient design, but their creation was absolutely shocking. The metal had been not so much forged and shaped as much as it had been assembled on the atomic level using electron lasers to make sure that the metal had no gaps in its structure. The claws were equal to any mundane steel reinforced to its very limit. Shirou had no idea that such technology existed. Sure by the definition of magecraft, anything she could do with her reinforcements could be done through science, but she hadn't realized that engineering had managed to achieve it yet. Beyond that, they seemed to have an organic component to them, mixing the woman's own blood into the steel, allowing her to use her own Od to even further enhance the blades, even without any knowledge of what she was doing.

What the hell kind of magus created those things? They would be considered beyond heresy to most, a mixture of magecraft and engineering.

"Looks like the little hatchling knows how to do more than run after all." The pink haired fist fighter said in a condescending manner. "To bad you're so weak and clueless. This is hardly going to be any fun at all." Then she did something that was completely baffling to Shirou, the girl introduced herself. "I'm number one zero five, Benitsubasa."

Magus never did something like introducing themselves. Knowledge of who you are can provide knowledge of what you can do. Giving it could possibly giving up an advantage. Best to kill your enemies unaware before they can figure you out. The second thing that confused her was the number given. Was it some kind of serial number? Maybe it came from a line up of homunculus, artifically created magi. It would explain how they had such inhuman amounts of prana, but even the Einzbern combat models weren't this durable.

Benitsubasa stared at Shirou for several seconds before a sneer crossed her face. "Well? You going to give me a response or do you think your somehow to good for me?"

Shirou didn't respond, just finished her reinforcement and deepened her stance, slowly putting up a larger opening, in order to lure in the attacker.

"Calm down Benitsubasa, we're supposed to bring her back still functioning, not terminate her, remember?" The grey haired woman said to her partner. "This fight isn't part of the plan, so we don't need to follow those rules. Besides, this isn't a one on one fight."

"Shut up Haihane! I don't care about that! But this brat shouldn't think she is so high and mighty that she doesn't have to even respond!" The pink haired girl spat. "So! Say something!"

"The battlefield is no place for words." Shirou said. It was the philosophy that Saber had beaten into her. While in battle, every breath that you spend talking was one that should have gone to ending your enemies life.

The pink haired girl flushed with anger. "Why... you... brat..." She growled, clenching her fists. Good, an angry fighter made mistakes. "Those eyes... I hate them. I know that the hag wanted you back still functioning, but who knows what will happen in the heat of battle." Lifting on her hand above her head Benitsubasa started to leak out more and more prana as she built up for an attack. "I might just kill you on accident!"

The girl punched the ground, releasing a massive shockwave through the floor. The shockwave was surprising, but nothing that Shirou hadn't dealt with before. She jumped up and to her left kicking off of one wall with another strength to crack the slate coverings and flying over to the other side, throwing one of her weapons as she did so.

Benitsubasa had planned on charging, but with her target using the walls to rapidly change her position, she missed her chance and had to defend herself against the incoming blade. Shirou shifted from dual wielding to a two handed style on the remaining blade, spinning it in a wide slash using all the momentum she had gained from the triple jumps to crash down on Benitsubasa's defense.

Strong as the pink haired fist fighter was, taken off guard she couldn't maintain her balance after such a heavy blow, and why she struggle to right herself and gain some distance, Shirou landed on her strong leg and twisted her left hand to the bottom of her blade pushing it upwards in a hard thrust aimed right for Benitsubasa's heart, underneath her guard.

The pink haired woman saw the blade's approach and kicked off the ground as hard as she could to get some distance between her and death. Her body blurred away from the spot, up into the air. But with how much force she had to put into getting out of the way in time, she was know airborne, unable to do anything as Shirou took a step forward and slide her blade up over her shoulder into position for a throw.

It would have been checkmate if Benitsubasa had been alone. Instead, Shirou had to cancel the finishing move in order to block an attack from Haihane. Deflecting one claw before side stepping to move out of the way of her and let the rest of the grey haired woman's momentum carry her past Shirou.

It had cost Shirou her opening, but it had gotten her out of being surrounded. She throw Kanshou at the grey haired woman's back, but she turned around and batted it out of the air. The weapon slapped into a nearby wall and was stuck there.

Kanshou and Bakuya weren't ideal blades for fighting in inclosed spaces. A wide range of angles of approach and quick speed were their specialties, along with the special properties that they gained in flight, pulling towards one and other. Not to mention that Shirou's style of luring countering worked a lot better against attackers with heavier momentum and the fist and claws were too quick to recover from a failed attack to fully take advantage of her little trick. She needed a different approach with a different weapon, one that could take advantage of the limited range of angles, something with a longer reach.

Shirou reached into her Unlimited Blade Works and found what she was looking for. A long black nodachi, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. The single edge blade was twice the size of Shirou's entire body but felt light as the wind in the small space coiled around it, helping with the weight of the blade. The legendary sword that was pulled out of the belly of the Yamata no Orochi, the eight headed serpent.

"What the hell!? Where are all these weapons coming from!?" Benitsubasa shouted as she regained her fighting stance.

"Looks as though she making them. Little feather must be an elemental type." Haihane said getting into a more cautious stance. With Shirou's new found reach, they wouldn't be able to depend upon speed along to get them past her.

"What? Is she a sword elemental? That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard." Benitsubasa spat.

The battle became much slower as the two extreme close quarters fighters tried to find a way through Shirou's own defenses. Each time putting up a token attack before retreating out of range of Shirou's massive blade. They were fast, much faster than Shirou herself. But they didn't have nearly her level of skill. Shirou was slowly driving them back into a corner.

However, it was going too slowly. Shirou could still feel the presence of the stronger fighter coming closer at a leisurely pace. As if she wasn't interested at all in capturing Shirou herself. But all bets would be off the moment that monster of a presence arrived in person.

She knew she had to finish it and get out.

She would activate Kusanagi no Tsurugi's legend, Heaven Winds Cutting the Fields. With it, Shirou could command a massive wind, capable of uprooting entire trees. In the narrow coridor with no where to hide from it, it would be a sure way to take care of her opponents.

'My body is made out of swords.'

'My blood is of iron and my heart of glass.'

Shirou started her manta, building up to unleash the legend. She was shocked when she felt just how much power responded to the call. Rather than flicking on ten magic circuits, more than sixty came to life at her words.

The prana was building up quickly, poured out of her skin and forming around her in a silvery glow. It gathered behind her, pulling together to form into feathered wings, that stretched out. Each and every feather looked like a expertly shaped blade, only lacking a hilt. So sharp as to cut into the walls surrounding her.

The Kusanagi no Tsurugi greedily drank in the prana, absorbing more and more of it. Far more than was needed. Shirou knew that it was too much but she couldn't stop it. The Noble Phantasm quickly reached its limit and then... it broke.

Cracks formed around the blade in such a manner as to give the black steel the appearance of snake scales, with dark mist leaking out of it and shrouding the blade, making it shimmer in the light. The air became heavy, as if charged by an incoming thunder storm. It was too much. Shirou couldn't use a broken Noble Phantasm. Not in a building full of people.

"She's using her Norito!" Haihane shouted, raising her voice for the first time in surprise. "How... that shouldn't be possible!"

"Like hell am I going to let her!" Benitsubasa shouted, rushing Shirou in an attempt to stop her attack.

Shirou had no choice. She didn't have time to disarm the weapon she had just created, not with the pink haired woman pressing down on her. Her hand was force and she swung the blade.

* * *

Shirou pushed the bits of stone that had buried her out of the way. She was a little roughed up by the cave in, but she was still in one piece. Just a few scraps to show for a roof collapsing on her head. Her new body must have been more sturdy than she thought.

The wind that had been unleashed was like a tornado. It didn't just rip apart the hallway. It tore open the the rooms on either side of it to pieces, going two rooms deep in every direction including up and down. A massive cone of destruction appearing in the middle of the building.

"I hope no innocent people got hurt." She mumbled to herself as she looked around her. She couldn't see her attackers, but she didn't expect to find them. An attack like that one at such close range. If they wouldn't dead she'd be surprised. Then again, these... things seemed to be around as durable as some servants. Either way, she needed to get out of there.

Looking out over a massive hole that had been blown in the nearby wall, she could see another roof top, around a hundred meters away and three stories down. It would have to do as an exit. Reinforcing her body as much as she dared, she made the jump to the neighboring building, rolling ungracefully along the roof as she did so before picking herself back up and continuing on her way, trying to get some distance between her and the strange people. Her body was exhausted. She needed to find a good place to rest.

* * *

Karasuba smiled as she stood in the hole left in the build's side, following the escapee with her hawk-like eyes. A feeling of excitement like she hadn't felt in a long time filling her. It was all she could do to stop herself from running straight after the little girl. But she wanted her to be on the outside, not cooped up on some lab somewhere. To see what kind of things she would get up to and to see how strong she would become.

Karasuba lazily glanced to the side as she heard a grown and saw a large amount of loose concrete being pushed aside to reveal Benitsubasa and Haihane, the other two members of the Disciplinary Squad.

"Ah! Damn brat!" Benitsubasa screamed as she stood up. Then she screamed again, kneeling down and covering herself with her hands. The pink haired Sekirei's clothes hadn't managed to escape the blast of wind as well as she had. The two of them were beaten and bruised, covered in cuts, but still alive and functional.

"Oweeeee..." Haihane whined as she pushed herself into a sitting position with her legs spread wide and open to the world, not seeming to care about her sudden nudity as much as her partner. "I didn't think that little girl would pack such a wallop." She said raising up a hand in order to rub her head only to cut herself with her claws, resulting in another cry of pain. "I guess we failed."

"Don't worry about it too much. I doubt Minaka will care too much. He'll probably be thrilled to hear about it all." Karasuba said patting her grey haired junior on the head.

Haihane smiled up at her. "You really think so, Karasuba-sama?"

"Who cares! How am I supposed to face Natsuo after this!" Benitsubasa cried over her 'ruined' body. "That damn brat! I'll kill her for this!"

"No, let her go." Karasuba said turning and walking away, back into the partially destroyed building.

"Let her go! Like hell am I going to late that little..!" Benitsubasa started, but she lost her voice as Karasuba looked back at her and a wave of killing intent flooded the air.

"I said. Let. Her. Go." Karasuba said, her grey eyes shining and a horrible smile stretched across her face. "I want to see how she does. Now come on, you two need to get dressed." She looked past them, in the direction the child had ran. "Get strong, my little feather."

* * *

"I can't wait to see Hayato's face when he sees the kinds of clothes we got for Akitsu." Mitsuha giggled.

"I know that this wasn't what he had in mind, but it will be totally worth seeing his reaction." Mitsuki nodded in agreement. "He's so adorable when he flushes in embarrassment."

Heads turned in there direction as they walked through the streets with their shopping bags. It was only natural for a pair of identical busty twin girls dressed in black and yellow stripped tight latex dresses with knee high stockings to turn some heads. Each of the sisters wore there golden blond hair in long twin tails that reach down to their waists where they both had rope whips attached to trendy belts.

And even if the twins hadn't been enough, the third member of their little shopping party set it over the top. Akitsu's pale skin and slightly light brown hair were exhatic enough in Japan, but her slightly far off expression and the Sekirei mark on her forehead took that to another level, even before taking her clothes into account.

She was wearing an extremely thin white kimono with a low cut to expose her shoulders and ample chest. The thing would have slide right down off of her if it wasn't for some chains that were wrapped around her neck, snaking its way between her breasts, before being attacked to the clothe, holding it up.

It was an outfit that the twins had found at an S&M shop, something they thought would be good for a laugh. Even some of the women blushed as they walked by. "You know, you don't have to wear that before we get home." Mitsuha said to the quieter Sekirei.

"Ah..." Akitsu blinked and opened her mouth before pausing for a moment in thought. "But I like it."

The twins burst into giggles. "And that is what we love about you Akitsu." Mitsuha said as she pat the brown haired girl on the head.

"You are such a natural pervert." Mitsuki nodded in agreement.

Akitsu tilted her head as she wondered about what the two had said, but that didn't last long before something caught her attention.

"Now lets hurry, I want to see how our Ashikabi reacts." Mitsuki said.

"I wonder if he will have blood squirt out of his knows like it those anime sho... Akitsu!" Mitsuha shouted as she noticed that the other girl who had been shadowing them was suddenly missing. "Where did she go?"

"I don't now! I hardly ever even realize she is there! She usually just follows us around silently!" Mitsuki looked around, starting to panic.

"Akitsu! Where are you!" Mitsuha shouted, looking around them. "This isn't good, our Ashikabi trusted us to look after the scatterbrains! We can't let him down like this."

"Ah... I'm here." The two turned around with sighs of relief.

"Akitsu, you are supposed to stay with us! Don't you remember what Hayato... said... um..." Mitsuha's words died as the twins stared at Akitsu, or more specifically what she had in her hands. "Akitsu... what is that?"

"Ah... I found her... over in the alley." Akitsu said, holding out a small naked girl with dark skin and light pink velvet hair. The twins' eyes went to the Sekirei mark on the girl's stomach. Not quite believing what they were seeing. "Can I keep her?"

* * *

 **Deciding to have Shirou go and meet the spoiled rich kid first. Whether or not it will stay that way will depend on how well I write the next chapters. If I feel like I have built believable chemistry between Shirou and the Sekirei of that group then she'll stay. Otherwise... sucks to the rich kid.**

 **Just so you are aware, it is unlikely that I'll have Shirou fall for a guy. Just won't really feel right.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I own nothing and writing this involves no money. It is for entertainment only.**

* * *

Shirou slowly came to consciousness. He was tired, feeling completely drained of energy. His stomach felt empty, as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. He wondered if he even had the strength to get up.

Well, it wasn't as if he had a choice, breakfast wouldn't make itself and the last time Rin tried to operate a coffee machine she nearly burnt down their small apartment. If he wanted to eat something, he'd have to prepare it himself.

Without opening his eyes, he rolled over to his left, expecting to stick his legs off the side of his bed so that he could roll up into a sitting position, only instead he found himself draping his leg over something that was next to him in bed while his head turned into something warm and soft. The feeling was unfamiliar but so pleasant that Shirou momentarily didn't think to question it. He felt a hand patting his head, brushing his hair in a fashion that Shirou could only describe as motherly. He felt his own naked skin pressed up against... wait...

Shirou's eyes shot open and he found himself staring into the rift between two large mounds of soft pale flesh. Slowly he turned his head upwards and found himself looking straight into the face of a beautiful woman with wild shoulder length sandy brown hair and light brown eyes. She was just staring at him with an almost blank expression as she seemed to be observing him.

"Ah...hhhh!" Shirou started to gasp in shock as he pushed himself away as quickly as he could, going off the other edge of the bed and falling down off of it onto his head. He gave an involuntary hissing sound as he rubbing the spot he fell on.

"Are you alright?" The woman asked, even the tone of her voice seemed pale and heavy.

He looked up at her his eyes widening as he saw absolutely everything as the woman kneed onto of the sheets on the bed above him, completely naked. He could feel a blush coming on. He couldn't draw his eyes away. In the back of his mind he made the excuse that you should never let down your guard around a potential enemy, but the deeper part of his mind understood that if this woman had wanted to kill him, she had plenty of chances to do it while he was asleep right next to her.

But when Shirou noticed the mark on the woman's forehead, the one with a bird over a yin yang symbol, everything that had happened the day before came back to him... or her. Momentarily pulling his eyes away from the woman in front of her to glance down between her own legs, Shirou gave a depressed sigh. Archer was surely laughing at her. The Counter Guardian had probably pulled some strings to set it all up. The insufferable prick.

"Wh... Who are you, why were you in... in bed with me?" Shirou said, struggling to not freeze up under the weight of everything that was going on. The blush was still strong on her face.

The woman didn't say anything at first, she just tilted her head slightly continued to stare at him. "I'm Akitsu... and this is my bed." She said before going silent again.

Shirou waited for a bit more of an explanation before expanding on her question. "Alright, then why was I in your bed?"

"Ah..." Akitsu said before going quiet again for another moment of thinking. "I found you and took you home with me." She said before reaching one hand down to the ground and crawling over towards Shirou in an almost cat like manner.

Shirou found herself unable to move as she stared at the way the woman's breasts moved as she came towards her. Akitsu was practically crawling on top of her as she sat on her butt on the floor. The calm woman reached out one hand and touched the mark Shirou's stomach. Shirou's flush was moving to an all time high, her instinctively held her breath and she felt something extremely odd and unfamiliar between her legs. At least this was proof enough that the change in gender hadn't come with a change in sexuality. Or maybe this situation was just so over the top as to produce a reaction out of anyone regardless. Rin had always said that sexuality was more of a slider than a binary guys or girls.

"You're broken too. Just like me." Akitsu said sadly, looking from the mark on Shirou's stomach to her eyes.

Shirou didn't know what to do. She had no idea where she was, what was going on, or what this woman was talking about. Shirou didn't even know what she was, or what this woman was. They weren't human; at least, they weren't normal humans. Those breasts had to qualify as not normal, large and perky as they were. She was finding it hard to think with their bodies so close together.

The door to the room flew open with a small crash. "Akitsu, get up, we brought breakfast!" A woman with long blond hair pulled up in twin tails said as she walked into the room with a stack of four plates and pancakes.

"Honestly, we know you are always awake in here. Can't you just come out without being told to?" A completely identical woman carrying some glasses and a two letter bottle of milk said as she walked in behind the first.

The two blonds stopped in the doorway as the stared at the scene in front of them. Large playful grins crossed their faces. "'Oh, how scandalous.'" The twins said as one before bursting into giggles.

"I... she... this isn't... Um..." Shirou started to stammer while Akitsu just tilted her head in confusion. Finally, Shirou broke down and started to whimper. "I have no idea what is going on."

The blonds burst into laughter as Shirou had her meltdown. "Hey, don't worry, we were just teasing you." The one with the pancakes said as the put down the plates on a table in the room.

"How about we just eat our breakfast." The other said with a nod.

The biological need for fuel voiced its opinion as Shirou's stomach gave a growl. She closed her eyes in embarrassment as she was physically incapable of blushing any deeper.

After Akitsu got off of her, Shirou went to take a seat at the table. Later on she would wonder how she could have forgotten the fact that she was still butt naked, but hunger was a powerful driving force. 'An army marches on its stomach.' Saber's voice reminded her in that way the proud knight had, never ashamed of anything. Shirou wondered if the King of Knights would have prioritized food over her modesty. Probably, if Shirou was the one who cooked it. Doubtful for those pancakes.

They were dry things, using second rate flour, the wrong parts of the eggs, not enough water, and who ever made them forgot the salt. It was a bland meal choice prepared by someone who didn't have a clue what they were doing. Still Shirou ate it, even getting seconds and thirds. Not feeling ashamed of herself until after the final bite.

"Well, someone was hungry." One of the twins said. Shirou looked up at the two sisters and their teasing smiles.

"Um... I guess I was. Thank you for the meal." Shirou said giving a slight bow from her seat.

"Oh, she's so adorable!" The second twin squealed reaching out and starting to pat Shirou on the head.

"What your name, cutey?" Her sister said as she joined in.

"I... I'm..." Shirou started but then paused. It occurred to her that using her own name might not be that smart. The name Shirou alongside the use of gradient air and swords would draw a lot of attention from any magi if she was still in the same world. The Association would be bound to put two and two together. Could she risk letting anyone know that name before she was sure what was going on?

Unfortunately, she had taken too long and now the two blond nonhumans were giving him looks. "Don't tell me you forgot your own name? Do you remember your number?"

"My number?" Shirou said, thinking back to when the pink haired woman who had attacked him called herself by a number.

"Wow, whoever messed up your adjustments really screwed up bad." The second twin said, looking at Shirou with a bit of pity.

Adjustment? Shirou frowned at the word, thinking back to the chemical pod she had woken up in. What had those people been trying to do to her?

Misreading Shirou's expression the twins smiled reassuringly. "Hey, don't you worry. None of that really matters."

"Don't worry, your Onee-chans will take care of you."

"Oh, we should probably introduce ourselves."

"'I'm number thirty eight, Mitsuha, and this is my twin sister, number thirty nine, Mitsuki.'" The twins said at the same time before stopping and looking at each other.

"Wait, I thought you were Mitsuki?" The one on Shirou's left said, crossing her arms.

"No, remember, I had to be Mitsuki yesterday. Today its your turn." Said the one on the right.

"Oh, thats right. My bad." 'Mitsuki' said tapping on her own head with her knocks and sticking out her tongue in a goofy manner.

"Ah..?" Shirou said, thoroughly confused. The twins burst into laughter yet again.

"Sorry about that. Like I said, I'm Mitsuha and she's Mitsuki." Mitsuha said.

"And you already seem intimately acquainted with Akitsu." Mitsuki said, pulling the brown haired woman into a one armed hug.

"It's nice to meet all of you." Shirou said, trying to identify a difference between the twins for future notices, but she couldn't find anything. Even their magic energy seemed indistinguishable. But a moment's realization caused her to switch priorities. "I don't suppose you have any clothes I could use." Shirou said, trying to cover herself with her arms.

The twins looked at each other and gave evil grins. Ones that reminded Shirou uncomfortably about Rin. "Oh we have clothes for you." Mitsuha said.

"Yeah, we went and picked some up after Akitsu found you." Mitsuki added.

"But first we need to give you a bath!'" The two said together.

"Wh...what? Hey, let go!" Shirou cried out as the two grabbed her by each arm and pulled her up out of her seat.

"You are covered in all kinds of filth, but don't worry, your Onee-chans are going to clean you right up!" Mitsuki said proudly as they dragged the girl towards the door. While it was true that Shirou still had some of the stuff from the tank she had woken up in stuck to her skin and hair, she didn't like the idea of being 'given' a bath. However, she found herself unable to resist the twins' combined strength.

Pausing for a moment they looked back at Akitsu who was still watching them. "You're coming too." Mitsuha said. The quiet woman got up and started moving to join them. "And your clothes."

"Ah..." Akitsu paused looking down at herself to find that she was also still naked. "I forgot."

* * *

Karasuba was smiling.

It was such a strange thing to see, at least for such a long period of time and without anyone being sliced in half. Nearly everyone in the MBI's meeting room were shifting themselves as far away from the Kuro Sekirei as they could. Not that Karasuba even noticed. She was holding an electronic tablet watching the replay of the previous day's fight over and over again, a look of something akin to ecstasy on her face.

As usual, Minaka was the last one to grace the group with his presence. The crazy bastard of a director rose up out of a hole in the ground in an elevator chair that he installed their just so that he could have the dramatic entrance.

"Hello there everyone! Welcome to this little meeting!" Minaka shouted spreading his arms out to the group. His white hair was the same way it always was, spread out to the side in a style that must have taken a few pounds of gel to maintain. It must have taken a lot of honest effort to set his hair like that, and few people had the heart to tell him how retarded it looked. His ex-wife was one of them.

The clipboard flew across the room and slammed into the man's face, knocking him out of his seat. "We've been waiting here for almost an hour! You do realize we have more important things to do that wait your you!" The white haired woman shouted at him. Sahashi Takami was the top researcher in the MBI, much to her disgust. She hated the kinds of things her work was being put to, but the idea of someone else trying to do it and screwing up was too frightening for her to even think about retiring. Even if she hated her job and doubly hated her boss.

"Sorry, sorry Takami." Minaka said as he got back up into his seat. "But since everyone's time is so valuable, how about we get started. We are going to be talking about the events of yesterday afternoon, correct?"

Having reached her limit, Benitsubasa pushed herself up and slammed her hands onto the table. "There is nothing to talk about! Just give me the word and I will go and kill that brat!" The pink haired girl shouted. Her arms and chest were covered in bandages under hear clothes and she had some small bandages on her face as well. Evidence of the fight she had lost the night before.

"Beni, isn't that a little extreme." Haihane said. She didn't look any different than before. She had always been wearing bandages.

"Like hell it is! That brat, who even was she!?" Benitsubasa shouted, shifting her glare to Takami. "I checked all of our records on the Sekirei and couldn't find her anywhere!"

"Well, that is the reason why it would be better if you brought her back alive and still functioning." Takami said, looking down at her notepad. "She isn't a Sekirei. At least, she's not one of the original one hundred and eight."

"Not one of the original one hundred and eight? I wasn't aware that there were any others." Ichinomiya Natsuo, the Ashikabi of Benitsubasa said in a rather unassuming and friendly manner.

"It's an old project from before you were even brought in. It started around ten years ago. We believed that one hundred and eight individuals isn't really enough to help establish the Sekirei, so we tried to make more using genetics taken from the single digits." Takami said with a shrug.

"You cloned an army of the single digits? Scary." Haihane said with a smile, glancing towards number zero four as she was off in her own world.

"No, the project was pretty must a complete wash. Out of the one thousand attempts only four of the products were physically stable and even then only while they were kept in stasis pods and they never showed any signs of higher level brain activity." Takami said shaking her had as she read off her report. "In the end, none of the subjects developed a Sekirei Core. We could never understand why. Something was needed. Something beyond just the genetic code. But we could never figure it out and without one a Sekirei can't function, so the project was canceled. We kept the remaining subjects as spare organs to be used if any of the active Sekirei suffered excessive damage during termination and needed something replaced."

"That girl didn't seem so lifeless to me." Haihane said, leaning back in her seat.

"Yes! Amazing isn't it!" Minaka said with a wide grin. "Three days ago, out of nowhere, subject four oh four suddenly developed its own Sekirei core. Breathing new life into the game."

Takami held back a growl at the calling of the Sekirei Plan a 'game'. "Yes, well, we were planning on running tests on her to find out if she was stable enough to be released from her stasis tank, but before we had the chance she woke up and broke out of her tank. I assume you all know the rest."

"So... we can't find... four oh four... really?" Haihane raising a hand to cover her chuckles only to accidently cut her own face. She had once again forgot she was still wearing her claws.

Takami rolled her eyes at the Sekirei's stupidity. "You say that she only gained consciousness moments before her escape." Natsuo said scratching his chin. "If that is so, then how did she know how to talk?"

"Yes, I've been wondering that as well." Takami nodded in agreement. "We have no solid leads on how she learned Japanese. She shouldn't even know how to walk."

"You forgot to mention where she learned to fight." Karasuba said, marking the first time she had talked in nearly an hour. Her cold eyes looked up at the group, her smile still on her face. "She was one hell of a fighter."

"What are you talking about!? She was a mess! Her stances was so full of holes it was embarrassing!" Benitsubasa shouted glaring down at the table as her hands shock with rage. "She was sloppy, and weak, and slow, and inexperienced, and stupid, and ugly, and short, and... and... and..!"

"And she kicked our asses." Haihane supplied.

"AND SHE KICKED OUR ASSES!" Benitsubasa screamed. "How did she beat us!? How!?"

"That... is a question." Takami admitted looking down at her charts. "Based on the data we have gathered from the videos of the fight, she was much slower and physically weaker than both Haihane and Benitsubasa. Roughly one third of their speed and one fifth their physical strength. Her body isn't quite as strong as a normal Sekirei's, most likely do to her time in the stasis tank. Her odds of victory should have been... none existent."

"That doesn't matter, not with those kinds of moves." Karasuba said shaking her head slowly and sighing. "Girl was simply a much better fighter."

"What are you talking about!?" Benitsubasa demanded, seeming to forget who she was talking to in her irrational anger.

"Four Liang Moving A Thousand Jin." Karasuba said and started to chuckle.

Benitsubasa's reaction was slow. First she narrowed her eyes in thought, then they widened with realization, then her entire face contorted in rage. "That brat..." Benitsubasa growled before screaming and slamming her hands down onto the table hard enough to split the entire thing in two and crack the ground beneath it. "That brat! I'll kill her!"

"Huh? What's 'Four Liang Moving A Thousand Jin' mean?" Haihane asked, not familiar with the sang.

"It's a Chinese proverb used in Chen Style Taijiquan, a sort of Chinese boxing." Karasuba said chuckling at Benitsubasa reaction. "It means that one can use less force in order to redirect a stronger and faster attack. But in order to actually use it in combat, you need to know exactly where your opponent is attacking before they do."

"That brat was leading us on, leaving openings in order so that she would be able to be sure that we would go for them! She was having us dance to her tone that entire time!" Benitsubasa summarized. "How!? That kind of technique takes decades to learn! How does some brat like her know it!?"

"You don't do it justice. No one ever actually mastered the technique. It was only a legend. No human ever had the means to make it, the stupid monkeys only talked about it as an example Sun Tzu said in his Art of War. 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.' The style changes a show of weakness into one's greatest strength. And she didn't only just learn it, she expanded on it, using it alongside twin Chinese sabers." Karasuba said, visibly shivering in excitement.

"I didn't know you read the Art of War? Or studied the fighting styles of Chinese monks." Minaka said, seeming more surprised about that then anything else. Karasuba only shrugged in response.

"I'll kill that brat... I'll kill her..." Benitsubasa said over and over again.

"No you won't. You've already lost. Just leave her alone." Karasuba said.

"No way! Now that I know how she fights!.."

"She knows how you fight too. She observed your style and changed her own to counter you. You won't be able to beat her. If it wasn't for the fact that it was two on one you would have been killed over three times over." Karasuba said, dismissing her junior, much to Benitsubasa's anger.

"I believe that our actions are up to the director." Natsuo said, looking to Minaka. The white haired man sat in his seat nodded.

"Yes, I suppose we do need to decide what to do." He admitted. Then a large smile spread across his face. "We will allow her to join into the Plan." Karasuba looked more than pleased while Benitsubasa looked like she wanted to tear the building apart a second time. "We will have to announce her entrance to everyone involved in the Plan. Wouldn't be fair to change the rules without telling them."

"You can't be serious." Takami said, glaring at the man.

"Oh, but I am! We will tell them all that number one zero nine... ah, we need a name for her. We can't just call her subject four oh four, or else people might never find her." Minaka said crossing his arms and lowering his head in thought.

"Kurogane." Karasuba said getting everyone's attention. "As the girl's mother, its only right that I get to name her, right?"

"M..m...mother!" Benitsubasa squealed in shock, Haihane's jaw also dropped.

"Yes, well, roughly seventy percent of subject fo... Kurogane's genetic material came from number zero four, Karasuba, the Kuro Sekirei." Takami admitted with a sigh.

"Momma is so proud of her little bundle of chaos." Karasuba said, as she continued to watch the video of her daughter on loop.

"Kurogane huh? A name meaning black metal and referring to iron and blacksmithing, appropriate for a Sekirei that makes swords and the daughter of the Kuro Sekirei." Minaka said, nodding his approval. "Very well! Sekirei number one zero nine, Kurogane is officially part of the Sekirei Plan!" Minaka announced to everyone present before beginning to laugh aloud.

"I thought that girl's eyes looked familiar." Haihane said looking up at the ceiling. "It was the same look Karasuba-sama always has."

"Her... daughter..." Benitsubasa said, turning pale as a ghost. "They cloned her? Are they insane?"

"Yeah... and you just threatened to kill her at least a dozen times." Haihane pointed out. Benitsubasa froze. "Hope mom doesn't take it the wrong way."

* * *

 **Shirou in true Shirou fashion is going to be trying to play herself off as weaker than she really is. However, because of this, many other characters are going to see her as being nothing more than an adorable little girl and are going to basically sexually harass her. Because I find it amusing... Actually no, its because it makes sense for the story. I don't really feel all that comfortable writing it, but I'm not wussing out about it.**

 **Since Shirou holds Saber in such high regards, I'm pretty sure he would try to deny himself the right to have any kind of identity crisis over a sudden change in gender, since Saber had to live her whole life denying her own and regretted it.**


	4. Chapter 4

Emiya Shirou had been built of tough stuff. Shirou had a veteran of not only some of the most ferrous battles in the history of humanity, but also some of the most stupidly intense training in existence. Shirou had pushed that body hard until the human limit and beyond. He had been tall, broad shouldered with muscle in all the right places. He had been a man who could have taken a charging bull head on and pinned the thing to the ground using pure brute strength.

He had been cut, bitten, bruised, beaten, and burned on more occasions that he even cared to count. All of his trials and tribulations had given him skin like leather, hard enough to stop duller blades and rough enough to be used as sandpaper, even before his reinforcements bolstered his body. He had all physical feeling stripped away to turn him a fine toned machine of war.

Shirou new body however was not like that. Not at all.

The small female body was hardly even half of Shirou's old size and was less than a quarter of the weight at the most. While the muscular tissue was of a higher quality, it wasn't present in great mass. Her new skin soft as a baby's bottom, complete unblemished by bruising or scars, and... rather sensitive.

"Please... no not there... Ha ha ha... Stop it I can't... Ha ha ha..." Shirou spluttered as she tried to squirm free of the twins as they laughed and rubbed the soap from her body. The two blonds had been overjoyed to find that Shirou was now ticklish. If Shirou had ever admitted to having a warrior's pride, that pride would have been shattered into tiny pieces.

"No way! We are going to scrub you spotless!" Mitsuki giggled as she and her sister both started to rub at one of Shirou's new... The World was a cruel bitch, Shirou had hardly had time to adapt to the loss of her manhood and it was already kicking at her while she was down.

Shirou tried to escape reality by observing her surroundings, trying to distance herself from the events that were happening to her. Reality was not important, only how you perceive reality.

The bath was a large one, as large as most public bathhouses, not that Shirou ever went to them. However it wasn't in the style of Japan, rather it was in more of a western style with most of the surfaces done in synthetic marble flooring with walls covered in wall paper with complex designs and a fountain display of a baby riding a swan. It was all much more over the top than the simpler set ups more traditional to Japan.

Actually, what of the house she had seen was in the style of an old European mansion. Wood doors instead of paper, beds instead of futons, the artwork and plaster sculptures. It irked Shirou a little. Sure she had stayed in places like it in the past. But that was while she was outside of Japan. For something so large and un-Japanese to be sitting inside of Japan was an insult to the countries unique culture. She vaguely wondered if the person themselves was Japanese or not. She wasn't sure which would be worse.

The twins really let Shirou have it, scrubbing her down from head to toe hard enough to peel off the layer of dried goo from the tank she had woken up in. The only thing they were slightly gentle with was her long hair. It was apparently their favorite quality about her. Any attempts to stop them were met with failure as they were physically much stronger and quicker than Shirou herself and the reincarnated girl/man was reluctant to expose her skill to people she didn't know and was sure weren't human.

Still, even if they weren't human, they didn't seem to mean any harm, other than to Shirou's nonexistent pride. Strange as they were, they weren't hostile. Then again, Shirou seemed to be of the same species as them now, so even if they did hate humanity they wouldn't have attacked her for it. Experience told her to be careful regardless.

The fact that Alaya had seemingly stuck Shirou's soul in a none human vessel didn't really surprise her all that much. While the Will of Humanity usually preferred to act through humans, she was a Divine Spirit with enough power to destroy worlds and could directly alter reality, space and time in ways that Magi could only dream of. Doing something as simple as booting Shirou's soul into an empty shell was a hell of a lot easier than summoning up a tornado on someone's house. Shirou could probably name at least ten Magus who could do that much if she needed to.

It did seem a little out of the Divine Spirit's style. Usually she preferred to make humans solve humanity's problems before she brought other elements, like the Counter Guardians, into the mix. Was there some kind of problem going on where humanity had failed? Or did the bitch just want to fuck with Shirou for telling her to go to hell? In retrospect, telling such a being to go fuck itself was probably not Shirou's brightest idea.

When Shirou's mind returned back to reality, she found herself lying on a bench with a towel draped over her forehead.

"She's coming too." One of the twins said, she honestly couldn't even guess which one.

"Seems like all the hot water got to you. You feeling alright there?" The other said.

"I'm fi..." Shirou started but then her jaw slapped shut again. The two blond girls were leaning over him, each one still naked from their bath together and with their straight hair down to their waist. Their hands were behind their backs, pushing their large chests forward, showing off their figures.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the fact that she had just lived the fantasy of most hormonal young men. Being given a bath by two gorgeous twin blonds. With Akitsu quietly watching their every move to make things even more surreal. She decided that those fantasies were horrible wrong and that the reality of it felt more like drowning than bliss. She felt so violated.

"Well, in that case, we better start getting ready." The twin on his left said as she moved to grab the clothes she had been wearing before they had entered the tub.

"Yeah, our Master will probably be waiting for us. We were going to introduce you too him." The second said as she pulled up her own dress. The two sisters hugged together as they reached around each other to do up the zippers. Shirou saw as their own tattoo like marks between their shoulder blades were covered up. Just like the ones on her own stomach and Akitsu's forehead.

"Ah... Master is waiting." Akitsu said, getting up and starting to walk out of the room.

"'Akitsu, clothes.'" The twins said together in an off handed manner. The brown haired woman stopped in the middle of the room and looked down to see that she indeed didn't have any clothes on before nodding and going to look for them.

"What about me?" Shirou asked, looking at the twins. "You said that you got me something to wear."

The twins grinned at each other. "That's right. Mitsuki and I got it for you after we found you yesterday." Mitsuha said as her sister went and grabbed a laundry basket.

"That's right! I just know you are going to love it." Mitsuki said as she reach down into it and pulled out something that made Shirou pale.

"'Tada! What do you think?'" The twins said together.

It looked like a tooth fairy outfit that a girl might wear on Halloween. Several layers of thin fabric in several dark shades of blue forming into a sort of tutu while the stomach was covered in a black cloth and long loose dark blue piece of fabric covered the arms.

It reminded Shirou of a curtain vampire with a fetish for... magical girls. She remembered when Rin and Luvia had been forced into wearing similar outfits when that madman felt like punishing them for messing up in their studies. They had taken out their anger on Shirou when the unfortunate magus accidently saw them in it.

Shirou stared at the costume, hoping that her eyes were somehow deceiving her. But it didn't go away. Options ran through her mind.

Shirou could just ignore it and project some of her own clothes? They would disappear when every she lost focus or went to sleep but she could certainly keep it up while she was out and about. Or she could use basic alchemy. While she wouldn't exactly call what she was looking at clothes, it was made out of cloth. She could change its shape and turn it into something actually wearable. It wasn't complex magic, since you didn't need to fool Gaia. The material is in a natural stay before, during and after the process. Even someone with an unusual element and origin like herself could manage it.

However the same road block came up with both of these options. She would have to reveal her magic. Even the slightest hint of her abilities could give others tremendous insight into her true skills. She might be able to be clothed comfortably, but at what cost? Grant Air could be weakened by the right bounded fields. While most Magus look down on the practice too much to guard against it, a cautious one would pick up on the slightest hint of Shirou's skills. A possible loss of an advantage over something like pride?

Pride had no place on the battlefield.

Shirou held in a sigh as she took the costume, making a mental note to find out where the twins got it and to burn it to the ground. But before she put it on she noticed something. "Um... don't I need... panties?" Shirou said weakly suppressing a shudder.

"Of course." Mitsuki smiled as she reached back into the basket, and Shirou's heart stopped as she saw the thrilly black painties, a long coat hanger wire tail attached to them. She only then noticed a small hole in the back of the costume for the tail to go through. Mitsuha pulled out a pair of black cat ears to match it.

Shirou felt like she wanted to cry.

Pride has no place on the battlefield. Pride has no place on the battlefield. Pride has no place on the battlefield. Pride has no place on the battlefield...

* * *

Hayato Mikogami was sitting in his dining room, basking in his good fortune. After weeks of trying to increase his number of Sekirei, with mixed results, one just falls right into his lap.

Sure the Sekirei Plan was a game, and it was the challenge that made it feel so rewarding, but it was still sweet when lady luck smiled on you. With this latest Sekirei, he would now be breaking the twenty mark. His collection was by far the greatest out of all of the Ashikabi who usually only had one, two at the most. Even the next greatest number was still only a megger seven individuals. He was also the only one to wing a single digit, and had a second one under his belt in the form of Akitsu.

While this new girl seemed to be another scrapped number and unable to be winged, that wouldn't stop him from adding her to his collection and making full use of her abilities. Not to mention how rare a piece she was. Number one hundred and nine. A piece that no one even knew existed. Even Mutsu who was much more informed about the behind the sense of the Sekirei plan than most Sekirei had confessed to not having known that there were more than one hundred and eight. Though he claimed that number zero one wasn't actually a Sekirei. Maybe this one zero nine was the real last one to make up for that little fudge in the numbers.

Hayato was waiting for the girl to be cleaned up and ready for their first meeting face to face. He wanted to give a strong impression. After all, this girl would not be bound to him by the link between a Sekirei and their Ashikabi. As such, he would need for her to understand that he was the number one Ashikabi in the game and that if she wanted to side with the winning team, it was him she would throw her chips in with.

As such he had gathered a few of his key members into the dining room to not so many as to make the place crowded, but enough to show how much power he could call on. He settled on seven of his nineteen Sekirei, if you included the twins and Akitsu who he had watching the girl. Akitsu would be someone that the girl would be able to sympathize with, as they were both scrapped numbers, and the twins would be able to bind the little girl if she tried to attack or make a break for it before they could talk.

Number zero five, Mutsu, was standing in his normal position on Hayato's right with the same determined expression that the male Sekirei always wore. The girls often teased that he had been modified in order to make sure he would always scowl. Though even so, the blond Sekirei was handsome in his own way, having that strong Samurai feel about him. He was an intimidating presence and one of Hayato's most powerful Sekirei alongside Akitsu, the two being the rare single digits and his first and second Sekirei. He rarely left his Ashikabi's side.

The space behind him on his left was vacant, as it was the position that Akitsu usually filled. As much as his other Sekirei girls wanted to be closer to him, they didn't want to chance angering the ice Akitsu in order to do it. Most of them might look down on her and say rude things while she wasn't looking, but they understood that as far as power went she drastically outmatched them. She was perhaps the most valuable piece that Hayato had gained so far, partly because he could not wing her.

As a scrapped number, she could wield power equal to a winged Sekirei in the presence of their Ashikabi, and as a single digit, the former number zero seven, her powers were stronger than almost all of the other Sekirei. She might even have been stronger than Mutsu. So Hayato could send her out on missions without the need to endanger himself or worry that she might be outmatched and terminated. He only had to worry about her getting lost, the reason she was always left with a babysitter to keep an eye on her.

The other three to attend were number fifteen, Himeko, number forty three, Yomi, and number sixty five, Taki.

Despite the fact that she dressed like a princess from a bad Japanese opera, Himeko was a skilled Weapon Type Sekirei. It was actually amazing how well she could use her close range weapon while wearing that long kimono and how fast she could move in her saddles. Her long black hair was worn in the traditional Japanese Hime style and tied together with a white ribbon. One of her arms was forever held up to hide the bottom part of her face with her long sleeve, as if to hide tears that didn't exist. She watched way too many soap operas.

Taki was an Elemental Type, with the ability to call up a massive amount of mist, enough to cover a good chunk of the city in a dense fog that would conceal her and her allies' moments. Ironically for someone who's power revolved around concealing things, her clothes were very revealing. The elegant white gown seemed to be missing its entire front part, revealing her cleavage and her stomach before coming back together right above her pubic hair. Her hair was colored like blue silver mist, an unnatural color that marked her as being a Sekirei to even the most casual passerby who knew about the secret. That was how Himeko had found her. She had been about as hidden as an elephant in the middle of a high school.

Yomi was a Hybrid Type, using both a weapon and elemental power. Both were weaker than in Himeko and Taki, but by combining them, she managed to produce results stronger than either one of her fellow Sekirei. She was dressed in her usual black gown with matching gloves and stockings, with a red ribbon tied around her neck. The entire thing was about one stone throws away from being a French maid's outfit. Her brown hair and eyes weren't unusual, so she would be able to move around more freely without worry about being identified as a Sekirei by others in the Plan.

The door to the dining room opened and Mitsuha poked her head in. Hayato could tell the difference between the twins. It had something to do with the connection he had to them as their Ashikabi. "Hello Master." She said with a smile, looking only at Hayato. "Sorry it took so long."

"Sorry doesn't cut it! We've been here for almost a half an hour!" Yomi spat angrily. "No doubt because you perverts were doing what perverts do."

"Oh give it a rest, Yomi. It isn't like you were going to do anything useful anyways. You were just going to be bumming around the city trying to find a needle in a haystack." Mitsuha said, glaring at the brown haired woman as she finished entering the room. "Mitsuki and Akitsu will be here with the little father in a moment. I'm just coming on ahead to give you a heads up."

Yomi looked like she wanted to snap back, but Hayato cut her off. "So what can you tell us? What's she like?" Hayato asked, seeming rather excited by the whole thing. He was rather childish like that, so thrilled to be part of the game that had disrupted his everyday boring life.

"Oh she's so cute, and super shy about her little body. Not to mention she's super ticklish." Mitsuha said cheerfully.

"So you admit that you were doing perverted things." Yomi grumbled, not that anyone paid any attention to it.

Mitsuha's smile faded into a sort of sad look. "She really is a scrapped number though. Whoever was doing her adjustments messed her up really bad. She doesn't seem to remember much. She doesn't even know her own name or number."

"Oh that poor poor child. She must feel so lost in the world." Himeko said putting on a fake display of compassion. Or at least they thought it was fake. She was always so over the top it was hard to tell.

"So you're saying she has amnesia? A self-winged child with an unknown past. How mysterious." Hayato said, tapping his finger together as he smiled to himself. Everyone knew that the characters with mysterious pasts and lost memories were always the coolest by the end of the game. "Well, we know her name and number now since the MBI have been kind enough to reveal it."

"How do you know that this is even the right one? Couldn't it be a completely different Sekirei?" Taki asked.

Hayato paused and then started to blush a little. "Well... that is... they released a picture of her... with the text message." He mumbled before shaking his head. "It is her, ok!"

"Why... was he blushing?" Yomi asked narrowing her eyes.

"Just drop it alright!" Hayato shouted.

"We're here! What's with all the excitement!?" Mitsuki said as she pushed the door open to walk in with Akitsu and their new guest.

Hayato flinched, trying to get back into his calm position in order to save face only for him to turn red as a tomato when he saw what the girl was wearing.

What was it with Sekirei and cosplay?

* * *

Walking into a room full of extremely powerful beings in order to meet whatever monster of a magus had managed to bind them while dressed in a cat girl outfit was not something that Shirou had ever expected to have to do.

She couldn't decide if she wanted to try to play innocent, pull out swords and prepare to defend herself, or simply dig a hole and bury herself in order to escape.

To say she was surprised when rather than the overwhelmingly powerful magus she had painted in her mind, she found herself face to face with some blond fifteen year old kid dressed like he thought he was a part of old royalty. It reinforced the idea in her mind that guys shouldn't have frills and that the middle ages had too much lead in their paint. It wasn't that he didn't exactly look the part, it was just that no one in this day and age would be able to take him seriously. Then again, Shirou wasn't exactly in a position to talk at the moment.

Still, Shirou should stay on her guard. After all, Illya had looked like a ten year old girl, that didn't stop her from using Berserker like her personal play thing. Power makes people crazy. Or maybe it was people who were insane attract power. Shirou herself was probably a good example of such a thing. Her single minded devotion to the idea of saving people could probably be seen as a form of mental illness.

The boy before her coughed into his hand a little before giving what was a rather impressive 'lordly smile'. "Welcome to my mansion. I understand that you have had a bit of a rough time of late, but you need not worry about such things any more since you are now in my care." The boy said placing a hand on his chest and nodding in Shirou's direction.

"Um... thanks." Shirou said, glancing around the room. His eyes lingered on the blond man who stood behind the boy on his right. He smelled of soil soaked with blood. His face was of a man who had no sympathy for others. Even as non-threatening as Shirou looked, with his ten year old body dressing in a catgirl outfit, the man was still gripping at the long sword he wore at his side. This was a dangerous man. His power was among the top Shirou had sensed since her reawakening. Right behind Akitsu and that presence she had felt during her escape from that tower.

"Forgive me, I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Hayato Mikogami these are some of my Sekirei; Himeko, Yomi, Taki, and Mutsu as well as Mitsuha, Mitsuki and Akitsu, who you have already met." Hayato said, pointing to the individuals as he named them.

"Sekirei? As in the wagtail bird?" Shirou said, wondering if she had misheard. It wasn't exactly an intimidating name for a powerful race. There must have been a history behind the name, similar to the history behind the name of Marble Phantasms and Reality Marbles. He searched through his memories about myths involving the birds.

Only one came to mind.

The tragic story of Izanami and Izanagi the gods of creation and death. The god and goddess had descended to the world and had learned of love from the Sekirei. But that love had been forbidden and became a poison as Izanami became pregnant with Kagutsuchi, the incarnation of fire, which burned her to death as it passed out of her womb. Blinded by sorrow, Izanagi drew his blade against his newborn son, cutting him into eight pieces and casting them out of the heavens as falling stars. Where each one hit the Earth a volcano formed and divine beings appeared, born from the abomination's blood.

The sword changed from telling to telling and became a part of several stories involving the sealing or devouring of fire. It was one of many Noble Phantasms with a connection to Izanagi that Shirou possessed in her Reality Marble, alongside the spear Ame no Nuboko and the staff Ame no Mihashira.

"So you true don't know anything do you? Well maybe we can fill you in. A good place to start would be your name." Hayato said.

"You know who I am?" Shirou said, tensing up slightly. That was absurd. There was no way that this kid could have known who she was. And if he did know then they wouldn't be sitting so casually in front of her. The power to replicate and use Noble Phantasms was what most Magus would deem rather scary. Only an idiot would have engaged her direction, even with all of these... Sekirei. They would had talked to her from the next town over instead of face to face.

"The MBI released information regarding your release, including your name and number." Hayato said pulling out his phone. "'Number one zero nine, Kurogane has joined the game. Try to win her over and find out her great and mysteries skills.' That Minaka sure does love his theatrics. How amazing." The lights in the boy's eyes were rather creepy.

"Kuro...gane..." Shirou mumbled the name they had given her. It felt to ironic to just be coincidence. She had once been Shiro (Kanji is a little different), white and now was going to have to go by Kuro, black. She might as well get used to it. No matter what she said people would be calling her by that name and she couldn't afford to tell them her real identity anyways.

It was rather fitting. Magus always live double lives anyways. The name might even help her resolve the difference between who she was and who she was going to have to pretend to be. In order to survive the current situation, she would have to let people around her believe she was a clueless and harmless child.

She trying to put on one of the postures she had seen Illya use in her last life. She put her feet together, crossed her arms and she closed her eyes as she tilted her head. She tried to form a pout, but the expression came across rather strange, though no less effective because of it. "The name feels weird. I don't think I like it. It's too long. How about just Kuro?" Shir... Kuro said, trying to appear innocent. An effort rendered much easier by the fact that she was a tiny girl in a catgirl outfit.

"Oh... alright... Kuro it is then." Hayato, said twitching slightly in reaction to Kuro's act. Kuro gave a grin of victory, not because she actually felt any success from it, but because that was what Illya would have done. It felt stiff and unnatural, but she would get used to it. It would become her disguise. It was a fundamental of any strategy; appear weak when you are strong.

"So... what was that stuff about Sekirei and MBI? I've never heard of them before?" Kuro asked, rubbing at her chin and looking up to the ceiling. "Is it some kind of government thing?"

Hayato sighed. "This is going to take some explaining. I'm going to give you the best picture I can, but if you need more details later, try asking either Mitsuha or Mitsuki." Hayato said, closing his eyes and thinking for a moment before beginning. "I suppose I should begin with where the Sekirei come from. You see, an unknown time ago, eight space ships came to Earth, and on these ships were alien beings which we call Sekirei."

Kuro's jaw nearly dropped. Aliens. Mother fucking aliens. Now that was a bad sign if her knowledge of the history of the Heroic Age was anything to go by. At the end of the Age of the Gods, when the Gods began to fade from the world, there was the Age of Heroes. It was marked by the terrifying war between the Ultimate Ones, the first interdimensional alien beings from the Land of Steel called by Gaia in order to destroy all human life, and Humanity's Heroes and the first Counter Guardians.

"They mingled with human society and had children with the people they met where every they landed. The Sekirei were seen as something like gods by the people and became the origin for several myths and legends. The truth about it those have long since been lost to time."

Alright, so maybe they weren't trying to destroy humanity. But then why did they come to Earth in the first place? To explore? To research? ...Did they come all that way just to breed? That seems... strange. What must have happened to their own population for them to get that desperate?

"However, as it turns out, only seven of the ships landed properly. One of them crash landed on an island somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean, and the Sekirei within it remained dormant until just recently when a brilliant man found the island and woke them up." Hayato continued his face lighting up with admiration. "He joined into a sort of alliance with the Sekirei and used their advanced technology in order to make giant leaps forward in all fields of engineering and research, building up a company that now holds over ten percent of the global economy's total wealth, meaning he basically conquered the world through business. All while keeping the secret of the Sekirei's existence hidden from the general public. That company is the MBI. The city we are currently in, Shin Tokyo, is the unofficial capital of their virtual empire. They control almost everything in the city from the police and the construction crews all the way down to the bakers and garbage collectors."

They conquered the world with money... original. No one can oppose them, because if they collapse then the world would be thrown into a Great Depression bad enough to cause all countries to fall to pieces. Wonder if Alexander ever thought of doing that.

Kuro didn't recognize the name Shin Tokyo or MBI. This could either mean she was in another dimension or that more time had passed then just ten years her body was probably developing for. Shirou had died in two thousand and four, but she had no clue what the year was now. That phone Hayato pulled out did look different than the fat boxes she was used to seeing. It was much thinner and have a screen that displayed more than just one line.

Where as in Shirou's high school days texting was just a stupid trend followed by snobs, it seemed actually doable on the more high tech phone.

"So... if the Sekirei are apart of MBI, and you have Sekirei... are you with MBI?" Kuro asked, trying to move the conversation along.

"A clever deduction, I admit that would make the most sense, but it isn't the case." Hayato said. "A few months ago the MBI started to release the Sekirei from the island where they were being housed and into Shin Tokyo."

Hayato paused, waiting for the obvious question. "Why would they do that?"

"They did it so that the Sekirei could find their Ashikabi and form a bond with them in preparation for the Sekirei Plan. A battle between the Ashikabi using their Sekirei in order to obtain a grand prize." Hayato said, his eyes shining with excitement.

Kuro's heart dropped down into her stomach. She felt as if she was going to faint. It all sounded too familiar. Powerful beings entering into contracts in order to battle over the ultimate prize. It was another Holy Grail War. And the administrators felt the need to build an entire city just to house it.

Number one zero nine. There were at least a hundred and eight other participants. Seven servants produced enough destruction to kill hundreds. How much damage would one hundred powerful beings cause? Even if they lacked the skills of legendary heroes, some of these Sekirei did have prana reserves nearly equal to a servant. If they possessed a way of channeling that power, like a Noble Phantasm. Good god.

"They released the Sekirei... us... in order to have us all fight to the death?" Kuro said. Suddenly the odds that the group surrounding her at the moment would try to kill her drastically increased. Her only chance at survival would be to grab the boy and hold him hostage. If he was the equivalent of a Master, then his Sekirei wouldn't dare do anything that might...

"What... no!" Hayato shouted in surprise. "It's not a fight to the death. This isn't a war, it's just a game."

"A... game?" Kuro parroted, not believing the word.

"That's right. The Sekirei don't fight to the death. They just try to terminate one and other by removing the other's seal. This can be achieved by either doing a curtain amount of damage to them or by pinning them down long enough to say a chant called a Norito while touching the seal. After that, the losing fails unconscious, but they don't die. They are just removed from the Sekirei Plan and get reactivated later after it's over." Hayato explained. "This isn't a war. There are rules that everyone has to follow to make sure that everything doesn't get out of hand."

A game? No one would release a bunch of super powerful beings into a city and force them to fight just for entertainment. No one was that crazy... no what... Zelretch... yeah he would do something like this. It would also explain why most of the Sekirei seem to be wearing fetish outfits.

Though a quick look around the room at Mitsuki and Mitsuha's uncomfertable expression made Kuro believe that this wasn't just a game like there Master thought. Did he Sekirei try to shelter him from it? Or was he just in some kind of state of denial.

It reminded her of Shinji's actions during the Grail War. He had been so completely out of his mind that he was convinced that it was all a game and that it somehow made it okay to kill innocent people. He viewed his servant as nothing more than a tool and claimed that anyone who beat him had been 'cheating'. He viewed himself as being more important than anyone else. Could this Hayato guy be like that? It was too early for Shirou to tell.

"You said that Sekirei and... Ashikabi have to make some kind of bond together. Are you wanting to bond me to you too?" She asked. She didn't like it. Contracts were always bonds business. Magical contracts can be removed with Rule Breaker, but there were other types of bonds than just contracts and seals. It was best to avoid if possible. If needed she would have to fight her way out in order to avoid being bound.

"Normally yes. However you are a special case." Hayato said glancing back and to his left to wear Akitsu stood quietly. "Usually a Sekirei and their Ashikabi preform a 'winging' ceremony of sorts. Afterwards the Sekirei is said to have been 'winged' by that Ashikabi. Afterwards a seal appears on their back between their shoulders. However you and Akitsu both gained marks on other parts of your body without being winged. These self-winging Sekirei are called the Scrapped Numbers and are unable to be winged by an Ashikabi. The official reason given for this by MBI is that they are simply too strong, causing them to wing themselves. However the reality of it is that when they were being modified so that they could more easily find their Ashikabi the person modifying them messed up, causing them to be winged prematurely. While this means that they can't access their full power which requires an Ashikabi, they are considerably stronger powerful than your average Sekirei when both are without."

Hayato leaned forward in his seat and smiled at Kuro. "But that doesn't mean that I don't still want you, or that it isn't in your best interests to view me as your Ashikabi. Out of all the Ashikabi currently involved in the Sekirei Plan, I have the most Sekirei and the most powerful ones. If you join me, then you will be on the winning team and will be able to avoid being terminated, meaning you can enjoy your freedom. You will be protected by my power and I will be able to make use of yours. It's mutually beneficial, yes?"

Kuro nodded a bit. It was beneficial to both parties. Kuro needed a place to stay, food and the like, as well as information on the situation. Whereas Hayato would be getting an operative that can move independently of him, allowing him to target his enemies without putting himself at risk or revealing his identity. Archers were always influential players in the Grail Wars because of their ability to act independent of their masters. Though it was not always for their master's best interests.

If Hayato was telling the truth and he really was the most powerful player in the 'game', then it only made sense to get close to him, either to move the Plan forward and speed up its end, or to remove him in order to change events that way. If time proved that this boy was a threat, nothing would be stopping him from stabbing him in his sleep. In this War, Kuro would play the part of the Archer class servant. The backstabbing prick.

"You would really help me? I mean... thank you for your kindness, Master." Kuro said, bowing to the boy.

Hayato grinned, clearly proud of himself. "You've chosen wisely." He said nodding his head. "Now tell me, what's your type?"

"My... type?" Kuro mumbled, running the words through her head before gulping. "Aren't I'm a little young for that kind of thing?"

Hayato blinked, thinking about what he and Kuro had said before flushing. "No! That's not what I meant!" He shouted as some of the other Sekirei giggled at his embarrassment. "I mean what type of Sekirei are you. Sekirei all have specialties which they refer to as their type."

"Ah." Kuro said, giving a sigh of relief. "Well, what types are there?" She asked. She didn't want to reveal any more than needed. Keeping her offensive power as secret as possible.

"Well, there are Power Types who can channel their energy through their body in order to increase their strength, Weapon Types who can use their energy to manipulate their weapons and draw out their weapons power, and Elemental Types who can call on the power of an element in order to fight." Hayato said, listing off some of the types.

Kuro frowned a little. She could easily fall into any of those categories. She needed to decide which one to claim. There were two things she had to do, not make herself seem like a threat, and make herself not look useless. They would probably ask for a display of whatever she picked. How could she show them the power in such a way that it would not seem like a threat, but would not make her look too weak to bother with.

Noticing Kuro's hesitation, Hayato listed off another option. "There are also Brain Types. They aren't much good in combat, but they are able to gather data in order to help their Ashikabi."

Brain Type? It would make her not look useless while at the same type leaving her in the possible position of being an invaluable resource.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath, analyzing the magical signatures around her. The breath wasn't really anything to do with the air. It was only a cognitive trigger to help her concentrate.

"Besides those in this room, there are eight other Sekirei in the house and four more within fifteen kilometers. Of those, two of them are on their own and the other two are close together, perhaps in a group." Kuro said. Keeping her eyes closed, she started pointing at the man standing behind Hayato. "You're an elemental user, right? Your power has something to do with earth." She then continued on to the others in the room. "Akitsu and the silver haired woman both have powers involving water in some way. Akitsu's is colder, ice maybe? Mitsuki and Mitsuha both use weapons, something to do with metal cords. The brown haired woman uses a death scythe and air."

She turned to the last one taking another sniff at the girl who looked like she was a princess from a dramatics' production. "You use a different type of weapon. A single slab of metal, shaped into a two sided saber. Both blades and single edged but pointing in opposite directions. Most of the mass is in the center, minimizing the force required to spin the blade while maximizing the momentum behind the wider slashes." Kuro finished before opening her eyes to see their reactions.

The princess's sleeve dropped to show a startled face, and revealing the weapon in question pressed up against her body.

Everyone seemed surprised by the display. She couldn't blame them. She remembered how Rin had reacted when she found out that Shirou could actually copy a weapon into the Unlimited Blade Works using nothing but its 'smell', and she had always been pretty good at identifying the different magic elements.

"'Wow.'" The twins said together.

"That's... not a Brain Type." The blond earth user said a look of surprise on his face. "Brain Types access computers." Kuro had to surprise a flinch. Looks like she screwed up.

Though that thought disappeared when she looked over and saw Hayato's face. They fifteen year old boy was actually shaking with excitement.

(((

'I hit the jackpot.' Hayato said to himself. It was a new type. One that hasn't been in the Plan before. A Sensory Type. Now he would track down all of the unwinged Sekirei with ease instead of having to search the streets blindly for weeks on end. Not only that, they could be able to have information about their target before they ever had to engage them. It couldn't have been more perfect.

Then he remembered something from before.

(((

"What happened to your swords?" Hayato asked.

"My swords?" Kuro said, not exactly sure what the boy meant.

"In the... picture that the MBI sent out to all the Ashikabi, you were holding a pair of swords." Hayato said.

Kuro froze up a little. He had seen the fact that Kuro had used swords. How did he get the picture? Didn't he get the message with his phone? Did phone's do pictures now? How did that work?

"Ah..." Kuro said, starting to scratch the back of her head. "I guess I must have forgot them somewhere."

Everyone in the room paused and looked towards Akitsu than at Kuro and then back at Akitsu.

"What?" Akitsu asked, tilting her head.

"Guess the girl really is a scrapped." The brown haired woman with a scythe said as she leaned back in her chair.

Kuro looked around at them all, feeling like she was missing something, then she noticed a flush on Hayato's face. Frowning she thought over what had happened that might have made him embarrassed. Then she flushed.

"Wait a second... you said you got a picture of me with the swords, right?" Kuro said hoping that she was wrong. Hayato nodded, blushing deeper. "And in that picture was I... could you see..." Hayato didn't act like he didn't know what Kuro was talking about. "And... they sent it to 'all' of the Ashikabi?" Hayato only nodded.

Kuro's legs went weak and she slide down to the ground. Suddenly, she wished she had woken up in that tank wearing the catgirl custom.

"Damn you, Alaya. Damn you."

Weren't there laws against that kind of thing?

* * *

 **The idea about the Heroic Age of Man came from another story, a Sailor Moon crossover that divided the Age of Gods into the Golden Age of Gods, the Silver Age of Gods and the Bronze Age of Gods. I know it doesn't go along with the Fate canon, but I don't really care.**

 **In the story, the Golden Age involved the gods having just come into being and not sure what they were supposed to be doing**

 **The Silver Age was when the gods discovered things like beauty, happiness and love and found a reason for being.**

 **The Bronze Age followed the collapse of the Silver Age when the gods found that love and happiness were finite resources and went nuts trying to hog as much of it for themselves as possible.**

 **The Heroic Age was humanity getting fed up with the gods trying to steal all their happiness and fighting back, ending the Age of the Gods.**

 **The Iron Age was after the Heroic Age died out due to humanity simply not having any more heroes.**

 **The story revolved around Zelrecth getting really excited about the returning of the Gods from the silver age, the Sailor Scouts, and sent Rin, Luvia and Shirou to guard them from anyone in the magic community that might try to get their hands on them.**

 **Luvia and Rin both have their eyes out for the Silver Crystal and Shirou is trying to explain to the Sailor Scouts that the world is better off without the gods and that they should just stop running around in their sailor uniforms before they really piss the Enforces off.**

 **I tried to find the story again but I can't now... maybe I just made it up... wouldn't be the first time I accidentally pulled something out of my ass when thinking I saw it somewhere else. It is a rather big concept, but I have a rather big ass.**


	5. Chapter 5

Kuro looked up at the woman behind the counter at the clothing store as she tried to make her purchase. "Um... little girl, where are your parents?"

"At home, probably." Kuro said with a shrug. "I came here myself to buy some new clothes."

"Should you really be buy clothes all by yourself?" The woman asked.

"When they bought me this? What do you think?" Kuro said, gesturing to the fairy princess outfit she had on. It was so glittery and girly that it was downright offensive and would have most respectable people calling the cops for child abuse.

"Hm... good point." The woman nodded, taking the MBI credit card from Kuro and swiping it through the machine. She felt no guilt about taking Mitsuha's credit card. It was an unlimited account, so Kuro could have bought the entire store and it wouldn't have made a difference. Apparently the MBI went to great lengths to make sure that their Sekirei were well taken care of before they ripped each other apart.

The first thing that Kuro had done on the second morning of her stay with Hayato was to sneak out of the house to get her own clothes. Something she could wear without feeling like every eye in the world was watching her. Something that didn't feel dirty.

She found a clothing store and bought herself a few simple outfits. Mostly consisting of unisex sleeveless shirts, jeans, and jackets. It wasn't cold out, but the jackets gave more protection that thinner clothes when reinforced, and sleeveless shirts were preferable to none sleeveless underneath because she could just maintain the reinforcements over her vital area's without having the cloth becoming more restricting around her arms, slowing her down.

"Would you like to change into your new clothes here?" The lady asked.

"Yes, please." Kuro said with a nodded, letting the woman remove the alarm tags from the clothes before taking them back to one of the stalls for trying out clothes and getting dressed.

It was still awkward, being inside of a female body. No matter how much past experience told her that dwelling on things doesn't change them, she still shivered with horror whenever she saw her own reflection, looked down at or touched her new body. Cognitive dissonance; your minds expectations of reality and your bodies senses don't match up, causing you to feel emotional distress and entrapped.

The solution was simple; change your expectations of reality. However in practice that was proving to be quite difficult. Shirou changed her name to Kuro and even changed how she referred to herself from male to female. She tried to identify herself as being young again, and tried to act it in order not only to fool the people around her, but also herself. But Shirou's spirit was stubborn. Or perhaps that it just remembered its old body too well. The one that struggled to stay alive, requiring her to have a perfect knowledge of its ever fiber. Now she felt like a stranger in her own body.

It made her think back to those people who had been convinced that the leg attached to their body was not their own leg. The feeling building up over time, slowly driving them insane until they attack the thing with a butch knife and cut it off.

Shirou... Kuro pulled on her dark red jacket over her black shirt and black jeans before shoving the offensive piece of clothing into her shopping bag. She would dispose of it somewhere else. Probably involving an exorcism ceremony and a ring of black keys.

Next up was shoes. While her reinforced feet were enough for them not to really be needed, it didn't feel right to walk around bare foot all the time. She had some socks from the clothing store in case they wouldn't let her try on shoes without anything on her feet.

She walked through the shopping district, trying to find any place that might sell shoes while traffic honked horns all around. Traffic seemed to be at a rather strange high. Though Kuro couldn't really judge, since she was new to the city.

Any belief that something ordinary was happening disappeared when she saw the helicopters and the police redirecting traffic. Hundreds of police men bouncing people away, making sure that no one passed. A dozen helicopters circling in the sky. Then there was the scent of several Sekirei all moving in that direction. Something was going down. Something involving the Sekirei Plan.

Kuro went up to one of the policemen. "Excuse me, officer. What's going on?" She asked.

"There is an evacuation for the areas around the botanical garden. Some chemicals were spilled and the trees are going out of control. But don't worry, everything will be fine. We are far enough away here for nothing bad to happen. Now go on back to your parents and enjoy your day." The policemen said with a smile as he patted Kuro on the head, something she didn't enjoy.

"One more question, sir." Kuro said, looking up at the man. She wanted to see just how many people in the law knew about what was going on. "Does the word 'Sekirei' mean anything to you?"

Man's hand pulled back as if bitten and he visibly paled. "Yo...you're one of them." The man said in the manner of a person in fear for their life, or perhaps even more. How much would the MBI have to do to force the entire police to comply with their 'little game'. Just bribery wouldn't be enough. The man looked as though he was about to faint from pure terror. It was the look of a man who found himself complete powerless. Kuro had seen it before, in the eyes of people who had their loved ones held for ransom. It wouldn't surprise her if that was how they made them hold their tongues.

If it was a magic association, then they would have simply used hypnoses to make the police subconsciously tend to disregard anything out of the ordinary and simply follow orders, but the more Kuro saw, the more she doubted that magus were even involved in this Sekirei Plan.

"I'm not going to hurt you, just let me through." Kuro said, feeling sorry for the man.

"Absolutely ma'am, I'll tell my superior right away." The officer said, before moving as fast as he could without running back towards another one of the policemen.

A game. Perhaps it was, but the Roman Coliseum had also been 'a game'. That didn't mean it didn't install fear in the enemies of Roman. That it didn't inspire blood lust in its people and distract them from their own poverty. That it didn't line the pockets of the state. That people didn't die. Even games have a purpose. The Sekirei Plan was no ordinary game, it was a War Game, one that had to be years in the making. It had to have a purpose as grand as the effort put into it.

Kuro didn't like depending on others for answers. Even back in the Holy Grail War, Rin had her own motives for working alongside Shirou in the beginning. Looking back, it was amazing just how forward she was with information. Perhaps that was in order to build up his trust, and because Saber would have been able to answer any questions anyways.

This time, she would observe for herself, see what a battle between Sekirei is really all about. Then she would make a plan of action for getting through this Sekirei Plan... no, this Sekirei War.

The police didn't just let her through, they offered her a ride. She declined, seeing the horrified look on the potential driver's face. She would run. It would be a light exercise for her. Something she needed greatly.

Her muscle mass was pathetic. Most likely because she had never used them properly before she left the tank. Nor was she subjected to physical therapy in order to maintain them. It would take months of steady work for her to build herself up to an acceptable level. Or a week of something much more drastic.

The fast way did have its appeal, it would be painful as all hell, but it would be the quickest way to close the difference in strength between her and the other Sekirei. However, if she got into a fight during that week, while her body was struggling to repair itself from her unholy training, she would be completely screwed, as helpless as a newborn baby. She couldn't take that kind of risk. She didn't have Avalon to pull her ass out of the fire like she had during the Grail War.

She would just have to get by with the strength she had. It wasn't like she wasn't used to be embarrassingly out gunned.

* * *

To say that the state of the botanical gardens surprised Kuro would have been a horrible understatement. The plants weren't just out of line, the place looked like a tropical rain forest. Vines over ten meter thick in places stretched in all directions, tearing into the building and overlapping with one and other. Some of the trees looked like they had to be thousands of years old. The entire thing had spread over twelve city blocks. How on Earth did something like this happen?

A Caster class.

Territory control. The specialty of the Caster class Heroic Spirits, allowing them to set up their home base, an immense fortresses of magical traps and spells. Whatever Sekirei had cause this, their Od was flowing through every root in the entire jungle, its mental commands being heard. The forest was a living weapon.

Kuro nearly turned back the moment she saw it. Walking into a Caster's lair without proper backup and preparations was dumber than trying to give a Berserker a sponge bath.

However, it was the nature of the Od within the vines that made Kuro hesitate in her retreat. It was nothing like with Caster's territory. None of the heavy hatred to drive away intruders.

Kuro found it hard to find words to describe it. It was... peace. Not the numbness of tranquility, but actual peace. An absolute peace where all life could exist without fear, hunger, war or strife. Where happiness was not treated like a finite resource. A peace that was absolute and would last until the end of time. It felt like...

"Avalon..." Kuro mumbled, feeling a bit of an ache in her heart. It wasn't exactly like Avalon's energy, but it was close that even Kuro could hardly tell the difference. Kuro's eyes welled up with tears as she felt herself drawn in. The branches not moving to block her. It felt as though Saber herself was calling out to her.

So despite her better judgment, she went in, moving towards the heart of the forest, following the Od to its source.

Sekirei were crowding the forest, but most were having difficulties moving forward, most likely because the forest itself was responding to them, sensing ill intent and attempting to keep them away. It was the only explanation Kuro could think off. It wasn't that uncommon that Bounded Fields are made to be triggered by the person's intent.

There were only three Sekirei that were making much headway moving towards the source of the Od. One was familiar, one of the girls that had been at Kuro's introduction to the boy who thought he was her master. It was the woman with the scythe; number forty three, Yomi. Most likely she was cutting her way through, or using wind to jump through the branches more quickly. The other two Kuro nearly mistook for being a single source, considering how close their energies were together. They smelled of ozone.

Lightning users.

The difference between them was a subtle one, most likely two different parts of the same cloud, one lower and the other higher with different rotations and temperatures, but both needed to produce the most powerful lightning strikes.

Yomi was practically right on top of whatever Sekirei had created this forest. Kuro pushed herself, moving more quickly than before. An urge to help protect the source of the energy building up inside of her, eclipsing all reason. The trees themselves seemed to be opening up a path for her. When Kuro finally got close enough, she took to the trees' upper branches to see what was going on without being seen.

Yomi was standing with the source of the Od, a small girl, one no more than four or five years old with honey blond hair that swept down to her heals and large green eyes. With her featureless white gown dress and shoeless feet, she looked like an artist's interpretation for what a fairy would look like... not that that was what the fae were actually like. She was a pure and gentle creature and the little thing looked absolutely terrified as Yomi pulled on her arm, trying to force the child to come with her.

"Hurry up and follow me!" Yomi shouted at the small child.

"No! NO!" The girl cried, trying harder and harder to break free. But it was no good, the older girl was much stronger than her and wouldn't let go. Tears had formed in her eyes. The whole forest seemed to be shaking, reacting to the little girl's fear.

Yomi didn't seem to care at all. She glared down at the girl, baring her teeth a little in frustration. "I went out of my way just to meet up with you." She said tightening her grip on her death scythe and starting to lift it in a threatening manner. "Such a bad child. Maybe I should punish you."

Kuro heard it all with her enhanced hearing from her perch a quarter mile away. Her body stiffened and hot anger pushed through him. To threaten the Ever Distinct Utopia. Unforgivable.

Her hands rose and a black steel bow appeared in her one hand with a large metal arrow in the other. She started to reinforce her body in order to have the strength needed to pull back the string, fully intending to kill her supposed ally. Not really caring that the girl wasn't actually the embodiment of man's dream for a Utopia. Nor the inherent irony in killing someone for threatening it. Emotions were in control and emotions weren't every things to like to sit and wait.

But before she could even start to fit the arrow onto the string, others burst into the clearing and things started to get... weird.

"Kuu-chan!" A boy jumped out from behind Yomi and grabbed her in a jumping tackle as if to try to knock her away from the tiny girl. Yomi didn't budge and inch from the human's attempt, but that didn't mean that the surprise attack had no effect.

"Hey, get off me! What do you think you're touching you pervert!" Yomi shrieked as the boy's hands had wrapped around her and grabbed onto her boobs. The Sekirei started shaking herself about trying to get him to let go, seemingly forgetting that she had enough upper body strength to throw a small car and could easily just break the boy's arms. "Let go! Let go right now! Even my master hasn't touched me like that yet!"

"Get away from Kuu-chan!" The boy said, not letting go.

If that wasn't confusing enough, another voice entered the mix. "Alright weakling, just keep holding onto her like that and don't move." A bolt of lightning flew in and struck the two as they stood there in their retarded wrestling match. The two shook violently from the lightning before the human boy fell to the ground, leaving the Sekirei he had been try to hold standing in a dazed shock.

The two lightning Sekirei moved into the area, followed by a human who had his own slight magical signature.

Kuro nearly flinched as she noticed that the two Sekirei were twin women. The scars from her last encounter with a pair to twins still fresh in her mind. They weren't quite as identical as Mitsuha and Mitsuki, one sister had slightly bigger breasts and the other a little rounder eyes. But beside that they were nearly completely the same down to their skin tight two piece purple jumps suits, with long gloves that went all the way up above their elbows. More fetish outfits... what was with these Sekirei?

The two stood in a proud fashion in front of the man with their hips cocked out and chins up.

The man had a disheveled appearance, like he hadn't shaved in a while and his white shirt underneath his jacket had large sweat stains on it. But beside that he could have been any other guy in Japan; black hair, dark eyes. Kuro supposed he was fairly tall but other than that.

Shaking herself to get feeling back into her body, Yomi turned towards the new comers. "You two... I've heard of you..." She said before pointing an accusatory finger at them. "You're the Sekirei of that trash Ashikabi! Hikari and Hibaki! Aren't you busy making a living!?"

The twins posture faltered at the accusation. "Shut up you pervert!" One of the twins shouted back. "He's better than your handsome, rich, smart Ashikabi!"

"Hikari... that only make us sound bad." The other twin said miserably, tears started to roll down both their faces. The man standing behind them, the one who must have been their Ashikabi turned away, pulling out a smoke and scratching his head, not bothering to deny anything said about him.

The entire display was so unbelievably surreal that it snapped Kuro out of her murderous trance as her brain struggle to process what had just happened, requiring a full reboot. Her arrow fell from her fingers and she only just managed to dismiss it before it would have hit the floor with a metallic clang and given away her position.

Meanwhile the other human was sitting right in front of the small Sekirei girl, Kuu-chan. The two were just looking at each other.

The boy was... around eighteen or nineteen... and Japanese... Even if asked to give a better description of him, Kuro wouldn't have been able too. The guy was plain in every aspect as far as Kuro could tell. Average black hair of the average length in average condition. He was an average high and seemed to be of an average build where average clothes. The boy couldn't have looked more average if he tried. He looked like the personification of what people thought a Japanese teenager looked like.

That, along with the fact that he was probably an Ashikabi, didn't have his own Sekirei with him lead Kuro to draw two conclusions. This guy had somehow stumbled into the Sekirei War without realizing it, and he was hopelessly over his head. There was no other explanation for why an Ashikabi would go so deep into an obvious war zone without his own Sekirei go guard him. Then he tried to actually protect a Sekirei at the risk of his own life. This guy was what Rin would call a grade A idiot... It reminded Kuro of herself didn't the Holy Grail War.

"It looks like we finally met." The boy said, giving the small girl a smile.

"Onii-chan!" Kuu said, throwing her arms around the boy's shoulders and starting to cry into his jacket.

"Hey, there there." The boy said, patting her on the back. "Don't worry, you don't have to be alone anymore."

"Get away from the girl, you perv!" Yomi shouted, raising up her scythe, running straight towards the two. "My Master has his eyes on that Sekirei, someone like you can't touch it!"

Yomi was doing a jumping strike, aimed right for the boy as he tried to shield Kuu.

An arrow flew through the air, slamming into the head of the weapon with enough force to deflect it, causing it to drive itself into the tree beside the target rather then cutting through the boy.

"What the hell..?" Yomi said, turning to see where the arrow came from only to be met with three more. Each one was a grazing hit, not aimed to kill or maim, but rather to just damage arms to stop her from lifting up the scythe. Two on the left arm, one lower and one upper, and the last into the Sekirei's back leg.

Kuro had calculated each arrow to piece the flesh and muscle but leave the bone intact. However she was surprised when after the arrows hit their marks, they only felt small cuts, no bigger than one would get from slipping with a kitchen night. In reality it did a long more damage to the girl's clothes than her body, cutting away a large chunk of her gloves and stockings. Kuro had underestimated just how tough a Sekirei's body was and hadn't reinforced the edge of her arrows enough.

She sought to correct that problem, pulling back another arrow.

"What the hell, shooting from the trees? What kind of coward are... are..." Yomi's voice dropped off as she brought her hand up from one of the shots to her left arm and looked at her hand. "Bl...blood... I'm bleeding..." She said, starting to shake.

Kuro let the arrow go, aiming again for the already injured leg. Yomi saw it coming and barely managed to move out of the way of the steel arrow. Then as another volley came at her she started to swing her scythe in Kuro's direction. "No! Get away!" The Sekirei screamed, releasing waves of wind that changed the trajectory of the arrows, causing them to miss. The invisible blades of wind came towards Kuro's hiding place, so the Magus Sekirei slide back behind the tree. Then, dismissing her bow, she started dropping down to a lower branch using the trunk as cover before slipping in the shadow from tree to tree. She didn't even disturbing a single leaf as she moved with the skill of a practiced assassin.

She reached a new vantage point, a good deal away from her first and was pulling out a new bow, ready to continue were she had left off. However, while she was repositioning, another individual entered the fray.

A woman dressed in a sort of shrine maiden outfit with a unusually short skirt was standing in front of Yomi, catching the scythe with two red gloved hands, the flats of her palms pressed up against the metal surfaces at the edge of the blade. Kuro was shocked at how easily it seemed that the girl was holding the blade back.

"Minato, I've been looking for you!" The girl said, giving the younger man a smile. She looked rather breathtaking with her brown hair framing her pretty face and her large round... eyes.

"M...Musubi!?" The boy exclaimed in shock as he sat in the ground behind her holding Kuu close to him, as if to protect the small girl.

"It's dangerous to go around swinging pointy objects like that!" The girl said before twisting the end of the scythe and breaking it with astonish ease. "There!" She said, clearly proud of herself.

Yomi stumbled back looking at her broken scythe with dismay. "M...My precious Death Scythe!"

"Are you alright?" She asked the boy, presumably Minato.

"Musubi, what are you doing here?" Minato asked her, still looking shell shocked.

"Oh, I came to bring your phone. Here." Musubi said cheerfully, handing the boy a cell phone.

Kuro watched the scene unfold, holding an arrow ready to the string. It was strange to her. Nothing like what she had expected. These girls... were stupid. They dropped their guard constantly, they wasted their time with words and displays that could only be described as dramatics. They didn't act like they were in a fight for their lives. They weren't taking it seriously. When Yomi had first seen her blood, she freaked.

That said, they were still absurdly strong. While Yomi's swings were inelegant, they were powerful and fast. Fast enough for the human eye to struggle to keep up. And that Musubi chick stopped it with ease, going so far as to snap the metal like it was a twig. That metal wasn't ordinary. Even when he was Shirou Emiya, Kuro wouldn't have had the physical strength needed to pull something like that off.

She hasn't seen enough of this new Sekirei to get a feel on how she worked, but she thought she had Yomi's number. She would have been an assassin class, physically weaker than the other classes besides caster, but able to make up for it by hiding the true nature of her attacks, those wind blades. However she ruined that advantage when she used it to deflect Kuro's arrows. He opponents already knew she could manipulate the wind to a curtain degree and wouldn't be caught off guard about it.

For an Assassin class, being so see through was a death sentence. Yomi was surrounded by the enemy, out number four to one by individuals who were stronger than her, and had already had her trump card spotted. The only rational thing to do at this point would be for her to retreat, or try to take a hostage.

Kuro drew back an arrow, filling the tip with prana until it broke and shot it up into the tree behind Yomi. The arrow exploded on impact, sending bits of wood flying all over Yomi, further cutting up her clothes and causing her to cover her eyes. The tree fell forming a physical barrier between her and the most likely possible hostages, Kuu and Minato. Then to distract from the purpose of that arrow, she shot two more on either side of the woman.

Her clothes were in tatters and she started to struggle to cover herself. "Damned coward! How dare you humiliate me!" Yomi said angrily, looking towards where Kuro had shot the arrow from. In doing so she saw the thunder twins standing there with their arms cross and looking forward she saw Musubi with her fists raised. "Ganging up on me huh? Fine, I'm out of here!" She cried, jumping away, trying to shield her modesty with her thin arms and dragging along her broken scythe.

Kuro let her bow and all the arrows disappear into flakes of prana as she glanced to were Kuu and Minato were. The girl looked as though she had fallen asleep. Creating that entire forest must have exhausted her completely. Kuro couldn't even begin to imagine how much prana must have gone into it. Far more than even a servant would have had.

Kuu seemed to know the boy, and he had put himself in danger to protect her. While he was a grade A idiot, that also might he was a pretty alright guy and wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Kuro would leave the little girl in his care... though if she found out that something bad had happened to her...

Kuro dropped those thoughts and she saw the second human looking her way. She didn't want to have her identity connected with the archer. Considering how obnoxious phones had already proven to be for her.

She slides backwards into the shadows and left to find a place to sit and think about things.

One thing was sure. Yomi was a bitch. Though that wasn't really that big of a shocker nor did it mean that much going on. That little girl was a Sekirei. Therefore it would only make sense to try to bring her over to their side. The only thing that drew Kuro to attack was because of how innocent the child seemed and the fact that she felt so much like Excalibur's sheath.

Actually, if Yomi hadn't threatened the girl, Kuro might have been firing arrows at the lightning twins instead. Or much more likely, simply sat back and watched them all duke it out to its logical conclusion before jumping in to remove the victor if Yomi lost.

However something about the whole thing felt weird, closer to a kidnapping then looking for a new member. What would have happened if Hayato had gotten a hold of Kuu? Would she have even been of any used to him? She was far to gentle to be used in battle. It seemed completely unfair to pit such a small child again fully matured adults... well, physically matured.

Kuro had the feeling that her alliance with Hayato wouldn't last forever, or even that long. Before that happened, she would need to set up a method for taking care of herself, a base of operations hidden with bounded fields would be best, though she would also need to consider how to get food. While she was not morally above stealing it, she would prefer something else. While the credit card was useful for the quick shopping spree, Kuro had found a transmitter inside it using her structural analysis. Not something she wanted to be carrying around.

She would also need to learn a few things more things about this War Game.

First, how much damage did it actually take to 'terminate' a Sekirei. It would be a handy thing to know about if she was going to be fighting them on the regular. If they could take a sword through the stomach and keep going, Kuro would like to know before she had to fight against five or six of them. Especially given how resilient they seem to be.

Second, what exactly were Ashikabi. What were their purpose, did they have traits that could be used to identify them. What would happen to a Sekirei of their Ashikabi was knocked out or killed.

Third, what was the nature of the bond between Sekirei and Ashikabi. How was it established, was it complete sub servants or something more mutually beneficial, could it be removed without terminating the Sekirei involved. She had been told that a Norito could be used to terminate a Sekirei without damaging them, but she didn't exactly know what a Norito was. She had heard the part from the lab building say the word, but she had been a little preoccupied at the time. Then there was Rule Breaker. If the bond between the Sekirei and Ashikabi was based upon a contract, then Rule Breaker would be able to sever it in intent. However, there were different kinds of bonds than just those made under a contract. Rule Breaker wouldn't help if the bond was brought about by a biological dependence or a physic connection or, heaven forbid, the power of friendship or true love.

Kuro sat in the higher branches of the trees, wondering these questions. She had managed to watch a few skirmishes here and there where the Sekirei of different Ashikabi met, though none seemed to end in termination. The Ashikabi seemed to be a little risk adverse at the moment. When they saw just how many Sekirei were there, most of them left. Now only a handful remained and they were spread out enough so that they weren't likely to run into each other.

It was going to be Kuro's chance to answer a few of her questions for herself. Locking onto two relatively weak scents nearby, she moved in.


	6. Chapter 6

"Damn, we've been looking over an hour." Koya Reiji grumbled, kicking one of the massive trees that had grown all over the place. "That 'Green Girl' probably already been nabbed by now. Shit, this has been one big waste of time."

Koya looked like what something probably thought of when they imagined a thug. His hair had been dyed bright yellow, he had on deflector shades over his eyes and was wearing both a baseball cap and an offensive hoodie even though summer sum was starting to cook him. He looked like the kind of guy you would cross the street in order to try to avoid, unless you wanted to check if he would deal you some drugs.

Koya didn't give a shit about any of that. Actually, that was the entire point. He wanted to make sure that when the Sekirei Plan was over none of the enemies he would have made would be able to find him. All he would have to do is strip off those clothes and stop dying his hair.

He didn't plan on playing the game the way it was meant to be played. He had no delusions of winning against psychotic bastards like the Ashikabi of the East, South and West. So while he was still in the game he was going to do the only thing that made sense; make some money.

The MBI's unlimited credit accounts were nice, but they had some short comings. The money was only any good inside of Shin Tokyo and could only buy food, clothes, or pay for housing and any kind of utilities. Basic things that were needed for living, but you couldn't go out and buy yourself a sweet car or a small business. You couldn't withdraw money into cash and, most importantly, it was only going to last until the end of the Sekirei Plan.

However that didn't mean the Sekirei Plan couldn't offer a man a sweet and easy rest of his life, if he played his cards right. The Ashikabi of the East in particular paid good money for wet work and would buy any unwinged Sekirei for top dollar, and those people who lost their 'true loves' were more often than not willing to pay a bounty on the one responsible. A man could easily make millions so long as he was willing to get his hands dirty, and Koya was more than willing, he enjoyed it.

There was a sense of satisfaction at the cries of the idiots as they called him a cheater or the horrified sobs of a Sekirei who had recently been winged against their will. It was like going to the beach and just kicking all of the little kiddies' sand castles down. Only he was getting paid to do it.

"Oh darling, it seems like we just didn't get there in time." Yahan said as she draped herself over Koya's back, pressing her modest breasts against him.

Yahan, number five seven, had been Koya's first Sekirei. She was an exotic beauty with a killer figure, dark chocolaty skin and long straight black hair that fell down to her waist. Her clothes looked like the cross between a beach side model and a wicked witch. A black bikini with A small hooded cape that hardly came down to the small of her back, a thin black cloth tired around her waist to cover her legs was held up by a thick black belt, and her heeled boots came up to her knees.

"I would have been able to find the Sekirei in time, that is, if we hadn't been dragging the ball and chain around." Yahan said.

Koya's face twitched and the glared back and his second Sekirei from behind his reflectors. "Yeah. I know. Useless bitch." Koya grumbled angrily.

Kuruse shrank back under the insult. "I... I'm sorry, Master." She said in a trembling voice.

"Shut it!" Koya growled at the girl.

Kuruse was nothing like Yahan. She was a bit shorter, petite and with a more normal skin tone. Her had short blond hair with a light blue ribbon tied around one of the bangs, and a more girl next door look about her with her casual red dress, black stockings, and white short sleeved jacket. It wasn't a look that really captured the imagination like many Sekirei's did. She was also weaker than most. The price for her wasn't enough to make selling her worth it, so Koya decided to wing her himself.

Yahan was around average by Sekirei's standards in both strong and skilled, but she had a power that made Koya's less than noble tactics a hell of a lot easier. The ability to move through shadows, teleporting from one shadow to another, was a perfect skill for someone who didn't care about a fair fight. It was easy to get your hands on another Sekirei's Ashikabi and they were as good as helpless. Or get the jump on an unsuspecting unwinged bird.

However that left Koya himself undefended and her abilities worked better if her enemies were focusing on something else. Koya figured that maybe by having that second Sekirei around would make his job all the easier. It might have, if Kuruse wasn't so useless. As an Elemental/Ability type, she was physically weaker than both the Weapon and Power types, and her ability was a weak one. She had the power to summon tridents.

Such an ability was inherently useless, since the tridents she summoned were not as strong as the weapons provided to the Sekirei by MBI and her own physical strength was so much weaker than the average combat focused Sekirei, the was no way she would actually win in a fight using the things. She was completely useless unless she used her Norito. Because of that, Koya had to be with her at all times to make sure she could actually do anything right.

This complicated matters, especially because she would hesitate whenever they were springing their traps, more than half of the time freezing up at the crucial moment so that the target gets away. And while Yahan could move silently in on a target in order to secure the kill or capture, Kuruse often got spotted before they were even properly set up. Yahan would have been able to navigate the forest on her own with little trouble, but Kuruse couldn't move nearly as easily.

"We've already wasted today. Come on, let's go home." Koya said, walking past his two Sekirei. He would find a new way to make some cash later.

However, he stopped when he heard the sound of branches rapidly snapping. Turning towards the sound, he gave a cry of fright as one of the mammoth trees came crashing down towards him.

"Master!" Yahan shouted as she jumped in and grabbed onto him, pulling him out of the way of the branches.

While they were moving out of the way of the falling tree and steel sword flew down out of the tree line, cutting deep into Yahan's left arm, causing the dark skinned Sekirei to give a scream of discomfort.

The moment Koya hit the ground he started to push himself back up, looking around to try to find where it was he was being attacked from. He hadn't been surprised by the ambush, even by the fact that they had attacked him as part of it. Given that he would have done the same thing, it wasn't hard to believe that there were other Ashikabi who would not stick to the rules of the game. Though, they hadn't aimed for a kill. The injury was only deep enough to hinder Yahan rather than immediately terminating her.

However, it became a shock when he saw what it was that had attacked them.

It was a tiny little girl.

She walked into view, brandishing two large black and white curved sabers. Her tanned skin and dark attire making her seem to blend into the shadow around her, not to unlike Yahan. But it was the girl's golden eyes that seemed strangest. They were like the eyes of a hawk as it circled its prey before striking. Even her blades looked more like wings the way she held them out in a not quite battle ready position.

Yahan groaned as she pushed herself up, holding onto her slashed arm with a free hand. It wasn't the first time she had been hit. The MBI's strange medicines would help her later. For now they needed to deal with the problem at hand. "Who's that? Is it the Green Girl?" Yahan asked.

"No. It's that other one. The one the CEO sent out the nudes of the other day, number one zero nine." Koya said. The girl seemed to twitch a bit at the mention of the naked pictures sent out of her. "A scrapped number. Just our luck to come across damaged goods."

"I'm sure someone would pay a pretty penny for her regardless." Yahan said as her hand went down to her belt and drew out a long curved knife.

"Master, are you alright?" Kuruse asked as she went to check on Koya, only to have her hands slapped away.

"Stop asking stupid questions and get ready to fight!" Koya shouted at the girl as she pushed himself to his feet.

"Of... of course." Kuruse said turning towards the small child. She raised one of her hands and golden flakes of light started to emanate from it before condensing into the shape of a golden trident. "Number fifty four, Kuruse, will be your opponent."

Kuruse stood at the ready, waiting for her master's enemy to give her name so that they could commence battle. However the child didn't respond, she just stood there, staring at the cold eyes of a killer giving way to slight surprise and then to curiosity.

* * *

Kuro studied the weapon that the blond hand managed to pull out of thin air, trying to fully decipher its existence. The girl used a gradient air ability that was nearly on the level of Kuro's own trace magic.

Kuro wasn't quite sure what to make of it. She had copied the weapon into her Unlimited Blade Works and found that it didn't have a true production method as much as a structure created by the Sekirei's nature. Rather than being an existence created by a magus carefully holding the needed pieces in their head like most projections, it seemed more like the logical equivalent of the Einzbern Wishcraft magic, where they simply throw massive amounts of prana at the problem rather a structured formula. The only difference being that it was Gradient Air rather than Alchemy.

The thing that was making it rather difficult for Kuro to understand was that the weapon itself was being produced by the girls will direction and was laced with all kinds of emotions. With the state of an individual's mind being about as constant as a hail storm, it wasn't like the static histories and concepts of weaponry that she was used to seeing. Actually, the girl seemed more mentally unstable than most. She both wanted to fight, and was appalled by the idea of it, making the weapon almost at odds with itself.

The power might have been able to carry her far in this War Game, if she learned how to use it properly. Unfortunately for her, Kuro was already a master. There was next to nothing that the young woman could do that would be able to catch the magus off guard. In this battle, she was to be a secondary thought.

The primary target would have to be the second Sekirei.

Kuro didn't give any sign of her intentions, not until a flick of her wrist sent a blade spinning through the air straight for the dark skinned Sekirei's chest.

While caught unaware, the nonhuman still had the reflexes needed to avoid death, swinging up her dagger up to deflect the weapon mid-flight. Didn't matter, Kuro was already dashing for her, swinging up the blade's twin, pushing the Sekirei onto the defensive.

This one seemed to be more competent when it came to fighting then some of the other's Kuro had seen, she blade have a small history of pervious battles and training. However she didn't have the same absurd level of strength as the two that Kuro had fought escaping the MBI building. If the two from the tower had B rank strength, than this woman would be a D-. Still higher than Kuro's own current E rank strength, but such a small gap as to be negligible.

Not that this was a test of pure strength. Kuro assumed that this woman had an ability up her sleeve, and planned on finishing her before she ever had the chance to show it.

After four swift strikes that the woman managed to parry, Kuro let her sword arm pass too far out of range for guarding, inviting the dark skinned woman to go on the offensive. The moment the woman's eyes shined and she pushed her body forward to take the opening, Kuro sprung her trap. A second blade reappeared within Kuro's free hand, deflecting the woman's strike in a hard parry that left her wide open for attacks.

Kuro lunged in, pushing her second blade into a soft spot on the woman's right side. The slash would not have been deadly, but it would be enough to erase any chance of future resistance from her, after which Kuro would be able to test the Sekirei's physical limits after getting rid of the others.

However, right before Kuro's blade reached the woman's skin, she vanished, her body shifting into a dark formless shape before disappearing entirely.

Kuro slide to a stop and raised her guard, reinforcing her clothes to being the equal of almost any steel and sharpening her senses.

The woman had completely vanished; her already shady magical signature disappeared, like vapor dissipating in dry air. Kuro couldn't even locate her through the knife that the woman had been holding. This was the complete concealment of one's presence at the drop of the hat. One that's strong enough to make an Assassin's jaw drop.

Kuro shifted back towards the girl with the trident as she sensed the return of the knife into the clearing. The dark skinned woman stood next to the blond girl, her arms crossed and a look of complete superiority on her face.

"My my, you are a sneaky little child, but it is all to cover up just how weak you really are." The woman said with a laugh. And what a laugh it was, it was that shrill and annoying 'princess' stereotype laugh at really gritted on the nerves. The few times that Kuro had heard Rin or Luvia using it, back when she was Shirou, made her skin crawl. "Well Kuruse, it would seem we have found someone with the same useless ability you have." Kuruse twitched at the insult but didn't say anything to defend herself. "But this is a rare opportunity isn't it?" The dark woman said patting the blonds shoulder. "Since she has the same weak ability, how about you be the one to fight this time."

"What? But Yahan, you..." Kuruse started only to receive a strong shove forwards from her partner.

"Just do as you're told!" The Ashikabi shouted angrily at the girl.

It was clear enough what the plan was. Kuruse was to be a distraction, pulling Kuro's attention away from the Assassin before Yahan slide in the knife. The subterfuge about it was embarrassingly transparent. Yahan might as well not have bothered.

Still Kuruse came forward and leaved her trident, entering into something resembling a fighting stance, one that was more in line with throwing the weapon that it was in closing distance. She stared at Kuro for a second before talking. "Are you still not going to tell me your name, or do you also look down on me?"

Kuro thought for a second before answering. "Number one hundred and nine, Kurogane." She said, not really seeing the harm, since they seemed to have received the same... text as everyone else. While she wouldn't call herself a traditional Magus who thought that using a car was an act of heresy, she had the impression that she was soon going to become a technophobe in a very different sense of the word. "Your name is Kuruse, right? Tell me, why do put up with them, if they look down on you?"

Kuruse's face remained unchanged by her grip on her weapon tighted. "I suppose a free Sekirei like you wouldn't understand. A winged Sekirei will do anything for their Ashikabi." She said, keeping herself outwardly calm. Kuro noted the use of the word 'free' rather than 'unwinged'.

Kuro continued this line of thought, even as she moved in, challenging the conjured trident with her duel blades.

Her style was an unusual one, thought that was hardly worth mentioning. Someone with an ability that separated them from everyone else isn't going to use their fighting style. She would attack with her trident, putting all her force behind it without any care about how out of position it would become, only to dismiss or just let go of it a moment later and replace it with a new weapon that was back to the neutral position as she moved to perform an attack with the new weapon.

The style was wholly wasteful, as with each attack she needed to recreate a new weapon, however with the Sekirei's prana receives, this hardly even mattered.

It was a strong style that maximized on many common spear type style's greatest strength, their reach and momentum, while minimizing its greatest weakness, that begin how long it takes to prepare for the next thrust. While it was still over reliant on weapon's reach, and nowhere near the level of Lancer's style, the Faker could appreciate how it all came together.

Or she would have been able to if it won't for the tridents themselves. Each and every one of them giving off the strange feeling of being at odds with its own creation, making a weapon that should have stood up to some of her weaker weapons as fragile as glass when compared to the strength of Kanshou and Bakuya, as the twin sabers shattered the constructs one after another.

It was after around fifty of these tridents that Kuro felt the dark woman's knife vanish from the clearing again.

Pushing Kuruse back, Kuro shattered her latest tridents before throwing Kanshou and Bakuya at the blond woman, forcing her to guard herself and breaking her forwards momentum as her defending tridents broke and she had to fall on her ass in order to avoid having her arms sliced off.

Kuro then immediately spun around to deflect Yahan's attack to her back. The dark skinned woman hadn't even been prepared to use her knife. The attack must have been meant for a knockout blow to Kuro's head in order to take her alive rather than kill her.

Kuro swung her blades up to attack with woman only for her form to dissolve again before the swords could reach her. This time however, Yahan didn't pull away. She reappeared behind Kuro again this time attacking with the knife, only to have Kuro deflect it and counter, forcing her to conceal herself again. It seemed as though the woman couldn't attack from within her concealed state, and there was a period as she was appearing where Kuro could sense the location of her weapon before she attacked.

Kuro focused on her sixth sense, trusting it to detect the weapon in the woman's possession long before his other senses could be able to locate her. Again and again Yahan would appear and again and again Kuro would deflect and attempt to counter.

No progress was being made on either side, since neither could determine the others secret.

* * *

Kuruse pushed herself from the ground and watched with amazement as Kurogane fought off Yahan's rapid teleportation.

"You're useless. You couldn't even distract her properly." Kuruse's Ashikabi snapped as he moved behind Kuruse, in case of an attack on him while Yahan danced with the scrapped girl.

"I... I'm sorry master. I did my best." Kuruse said, feeling as though her Ashikabi's words were like a hot brand burning her.

"Your best." The man scoffed as he watched Kurogane fighting, Yahan's teleportations had become slower, with more strength behind her sneak attacks, but it didn't seem to matter. Kurogane's reflexes were simply too fast. "How is that brat holding up so well with such a shitty ability? It's like she knows exactly where Yahan's coming from." Koya then scoffed. "Doesn't matter, as long as they are in the shadow of all these trees, there is no way she can beat Yahan."

"Shadows?" Kurogane looked over at them, a grin spread across her face. "Thanks for the hint." Koya's eyes widened, not realizing that the girl could hear him from such a distance. The next time Yahan attacked, Kurogane throw her white sword at her in order to drive her back, and then when Yahan had once again returned to the shadows, she raised up her now free hand. "Angurvadal!" She shouted and a straight long sword covered in runes appeared in her hand.

Kuruse and Koya both shielded their eyes as light came pouring out of the blade, illuminating the entire clearing. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the sudden light, but when they had they were surprised to see the blade shoved into the ground, the powerful golden glow making it look like a bonfire had been light in the forest. Yahan's teleportation skill required her to merge with the shadows, but with the brought light pushing away the darkness, she was exposed.

The dark skinned Sekirei started to try to run. Trying to get behind one of the trees where she could once again merge with the shadows. However, before she could get far a sword flew across her path. A long slender rapier with a red hilt drove itself into the shadow cast by the glowing sword.

The moment the blade hit her shadow, Yahan's movements became more sluggish. "Wh...what's going on?" She said as she seemed to be struggling to take a step. Five more swords, identical to the first drove themselves into her shadow, along with the first and Yahan's movements stopped entirely. She was frozen, standing in the middle of the clearing. "My... my body... won't move."

"Your resistance to the black keys is impressive." Kurogane said as the small Sekirei started to conjure thin needles. "Now let's see how much it takes to terminate you."

Kuruse stared in shock as the free Sekirei started to throw needle after needle into Yahan's body as the dark skinned Sekirei screamed. She started with only grazing hits before starting to attack muscles and joints, before progressing to using thicker knifes.

"No! No, Yahan!" Koya shouted. But there was nothing he could do, a knife landed hard in Yahan's back, around the kidneys and her screams seemed to fade as a bright light started to come out of her back.

"M...master..." Yahan said as her Sekirei mark dissolved and she lost consciousness, still standing because of the swords' strange affects.

Kuruse was having a hard time processing what was going on. She had thought that the girl's ability had been like her own, but she seemed to be able to create weapons that had different abilities attached to them. Not only that, she had just beaten Yahan.

Kuruse was literally dragged out of her shocked state by her Ashikabi's rough hand. "Your Norito, now!" Koya shouted, shoving a finger into her mouth in order to open it up before jamming his tongue down her throat.

The familiar feeling of having her Norito activated sweep over her. A feeling of both overwhelming pleasure, and total horror. A confusing vortex of emotions flooding her, making her feel like her heart was going to burst as golden wing of light shot out of her back and her power increased.

Once it was done, Koya shoved her away from him. "Now, do it!" He hissed pointing towards where Kurogane stood watching them.

Kuruse swallowed, suppressing a confused shiver of emotions as the man's spit traveled down her through. Tears were coming to her eyes and she opened her mouth.

"The trident of my pledge..."

* * *

 **I'm stopping here less because I feel like making a cliff hanger and more because I don't like chapters that are really long. They are difficult on people with short attention spans. (Uh, shine object) ... What were we talking about?**

 **Angurvadal is a sword from Norse mythology, also called Stream of Anguish, which is supposed to give off light/fire, depending on how close it is to an enemy. Stabbing someone with it could cause them to be burned from the inside out, even if they have some kind of resistance.**

 **Kuruse, Koya, and Yahan, are all characters from a tie in visual novel game that was on the ps2. One that no one played and no one knows what it was about. However they do know that Yahan teleports in shadows and uses a knife, and Kuruse is supposed to use tridents that she creates out of thin air. So please don't tell me that I am making up abilities that aren't in the spirit of the series.**

 **Yahan and Koya were villians in the game and Kuruse was supposed to be a good guy... I think. I don't know the wiki doesn't have much info on it.**


	7. Chapter 7

While it seemed as though these Sekirei could take a good deal of physical damage to their body as a whole, they terminated surprisingly quickly when their organs were targeted, even if the damage was something even a normal human would be able to survive. Though this was when Kuro had used precision based damage. She was still unsure of how a wider area of effect would work on deterring the aliens, but at least this confirmed that they weren't unstoppable juggernauts. The damage she inflicted upon the woman could have just as easily been done by a man with a sniper rifle, though it would need to be an antitank one.

The Sekirei's skin, while smooth to the touch, was as hard as hell to pierce. Each of the hollow bone needles that Kuro threw didn't penetrate nearly as much as she expected as they entered the woman's flesh. These were throwing needles she could have thrown at a solid stone wall and expected them to exit the other side, but they hardly even went in more than two inches in most places.

What kind of person would just release these kinds of thing into a populated city and let them be bond to random individuals? Did they not realize just how dangerous such a thing was, or did they have some kind of fail-safe that could terminate a Sekirei that went rogue, either through their own Sekirei or some kind of non-conventional weapon.

Light poured out of the dark Sekirei's back from the points were Kuro knew that her Sekirei mark had been and the woman's prana began to shift about, going into a sort of dormant state. After being sure that the woman was terminated, Kuro dismissed the Black Keys she had created to pin the Sekirei in place and let the body fall to the ground.

"Your Norito, now!" The human shouted, pulling Kuro's attention back to the two remaining enemies. That word, Norito caused her to pause. She understood it to be some kind of final skill that winged Sekirei possessed, like a powerful mystery. Perhaps it's their equivalent to a Noble Phantasm. The word, Norito itself means a prayer to a miracle.

At that moment, she was divided between the instincts of a survivor telling her to stop the enemy before they could get off their attack, and the curiosity of just what a Norito was. If she was going to be fighting against them in the future, it was best to have firsthand experience of what they are. Was that not why she was there in the first place?

However, what she didn't expect to see was the Ashikabi seemingly orally raping the remaining Sekirei, causing a pair of golden wings made of finely shaped rays of light so that each feather looked like a work of art. The amount of prana coming from the blond woman exploded to a level that would match Gilgamesh when the prick was showing off.

Then the girl started to speak out a Mantra.

"The trident of my pledge... become the wave which will wash away my Ashikabi's fears." Kuruse said, her voice seeming broken even as her golden prana gathered and started to take shape. Ripples of golden light filled the air as hundreds and then thousands of golden tridents appeared, suspended by invisible hands.

Kuro froze slightly at the sight of the thousands of tridents that were primed to attack. It wasn't from fear or even being impressed with the scale of the 'Norito'. She had been on both sides of such attacks before. The thing that had shocked her was the voices.

Each and every one of the tridents carried with it Kuruse's emotions, and Kuro could hear her inner struggle projected from each and every one of the golden weapons. Thousands upon thousands of voices, layering over each other. Desire, longing, pleasure... confusion... disgust, fear, hopelessness. Love and hate. Contradicting feelings fighting against each other in a whirlpool of emotional energy and power. It was so loud that Kuro felt like her head was going to split in two, and before she could recover herself, the tridents began the decent.

"Trace on!" Kuro said calling up what she needed in order to protect herself. Two copies of the same short dagger appeared in each hand.

Kuro had no delusions about being able to deflect them all with just Kanshou and Bakuya. No matter how skilled you are, you can't deflect ten weapons nearly instantaneously if you don't bend time itself, or have simply unreal speed. Even in her fight with Gilgamesh, she hadn't been able to guard against all of his attacks, and that had been inside of the Unlimited Blade Works. She had been made to resort to using more tricks and powerful defensive Noble Phantasms in order to survive the waves of weaponry and close the distance.

However, these tridents weren't at the level of Gilgamesh's Noble Phantasms. The constructed weapons, weakened by their own unbalanced nature, were barely a match for a normal sword with an average reinforcement. So while a thousand of them was near impossible to avoid, they lacked in individual piercing power.

The Kris Taming Sari, or Flower Shield Kris, was a Noble Phantasm of the famed warrior Hang Tuah. While the ceremonial blade, with its oddly shaped hilt and guard, might not have been ideally shaped for combat, but it carried a strong defensive effect. Within its legend anyone who held the Kris could not suffer physical harm. As such, only the strongest of physical attacks could get through the two copies of the Noble Phantasms' combined effect.

Kuro then reinforced her clothes to their limit without losing flexibility and began to deflect the oncoming attacks, focusing on the ones that were aimed towards her face, though hardly any were. Kuro stopped hundreds of blades, but a hundred more got through, striking her new clothes and leave small cuts. It looked as though she would need to throw this set away after the fight was over.

With each attack that came at her, her Unlimited Blade Works copied the construct and tried to decipher the emotions that lay within. Each and every one of them was a confusing mess. But as more and more of the tridents were copies, a solitary underling thought seemed to be constantly present.

'Please, let it end.'

* * *

By the time the first volley was done, Kurogane looked as though she had hardly been scratched. Kuruse had launched over a thousand tridents, but there was nothing to show for it other than a few small cuts to the smaller Sekirei's clothes. She had not once managing to break the skin.

It was a shock for Kuruse. While her tridents won't enough to kill most Sekirei, her Norito had never failed to terminate its target before. How was it that this free Sekirei who could only depend on her own power resist her Norito?

"What!? How is she still standing?!" Koya shouted, before throwing Kuruse a glare that reached her core. The feedback coming from the Norito was causing his attitude towards her to hurt even more than usual. "Damn you stupid bitch, can't you do anything right!" He raised his fist, punching Kuruse in the face. The blow couldn't physically hurt a Sekirei, but all of Kuruse's tridents shuttered as the hit shook her confused heart. "Hurry up and kill her!"

"W...what?" Kuruse gasped. "Kill her? But I thought..."

"No you didn't think! That scrapped brat is more trouble than she is worth! We've already wasted enough on this!" The man spat as he glared at Kuro. "Just kill her so we can go!"

"But... can't we just..." Kuruse started, her eyes widening.

"Shut up and do what I tell you! Stop holding me back with your stupid crap and kill her already! Don't just aim to terminate, give it all you got! I want her dead! I command you to do it!" Koya shouted at Kuruse.

The hairs on Kuruse's back prickled as she heard his command. She didn't want to do it. She didn't want to kill another Sekirei. She didn't want to. But she couldn't ignore her Ashikabi. She could feel the desire to do whatever it was that he asked of her. To fulfill his every whim so that he might love her. She couldn't fight it. No matter how much she wanted it to end. She couldn't fight those feelings.

"Do you want to be free?" Kuruse's eyes widened in surprise, at hearing Kurogane words. The small girl with his pink velvet hair looked at Kuruse with a sort of pity in her eyes. "Do you want to escape your pledge?"

Kuruse looked at Kurogane for a second, wanting to replay, but not sure how. She didn't know what she wanted. The more she tried to figure out what she wanted, the more confused she got, and the more her heart hurt.

"Kuruse! Stop hesitating and just do it already! You useless bitch, Yahan wouldn't have hesitated for a moment!" Koya shouted, causing the impulse to do as he said to grow even stronger.

Wordlessly, Kuruse raised her hand and more and more tridents started to appear, each one pointing directly at Kurogane as the girl stood there. But before Kuruse's will crumbled and the attack was launched, the small Sekirei started to chant something.

"My body is made out of swords... My blood is of iron and my heart of glass."

Kuruse was shocked to see large wings of silver blade like feathers appearing from behind the girl as she said her Norito. It shouldn't have been possible. A Sekirei couldn't use their Norito without a kiss from their Ashikabi. Not only that but the girl's words continued, something more, not a prayer, more like instructions.

"Trace on. Begin projection. Ending resonance of possession experience. Processes, completed. All projections, standby." She said raising a hand, mirroring Kuruse's own position.

Then, swords started to appear. Hundreds of swords of all shapes and sizes, their numbers increasing until they matched Kuruse's own weapons. Kuruse felt a bit of awe, standing on this side of such an attack.

"What are you doing!? Stop her!" Koya ordered, his words ringing inside of Kuruse's ears, pressing her into releasing her attack.

The tridents were shot through the air by an invisible force, but at the same time the swords flew in to intercept them. The air was filled with the sound of metal smashing against metal. Everywhere she looked, she could see trident and sword clash before both would be destroyed in a cloud of golden and blue light.

And in the middle of it all, Kurogane started to walk, as if she was unconcerned about all of the weapons flying through the air. She moved in no real hurry straight up to Kuruse who was still held still by her confused mind and the effort of her Norito.

The girl looked up at her and she was... smiling. It was a kind smile. As if she understood. She held up on of her hands to reveal an oddly colored rusted dagger. It was so oddly shaped to be considered a real weapon. "With this, I will set you free."

Kuruse could hardly hear Koya's shouts over the noise from all of the battling weapons. Nor could she really hear herself think. She just watched as the dagger moved towards her arm and gave her an almost undetectable prick, like the thinnest of needles. It was something that hardly even broke the skin, but with that smallest of actions, the darkness around Kuruse seemed to shatter.

She felt her Norito cancel, all of the weapons she had created with it disappearing in an instant as the power that brought them into being disappeared. The sound of metal scrapping against metal was gone, and more importantly that sound that had been buzzing the in back of her mind. That thing had been there ever since she had been winged.

She couldn't explain it, but she could feel it. She could feel as her Sekirei mark dissolved away into nothing. But even without it, she was still conscious. She hadn't been terminated.

"H...how." Kuruse said in wonder, looking up into the trees as she just let it all sink in. It felt like a storm had finally blown over. She was surprised she didn't see a rainbow. All the weight she had been carrying just moments ago simply vanishing from her shoulders. She felt so light, so in control, so... free.

"Don't just stand there! She's two feet in front of you! Do something!" The high feeling the Kuruse felt quickly went sour at the sound of the man's voice. She turned her head to look at her Ash... no... not her Ashikabi. Not anymore. All the feelings of awe, longing, hope, subservience, they were all gone. She was no longer some love sick puppy forced to endure his kicks. All that remanded were the feelings which had been hers all along.

Koya's voice became stuck in his throat as he saw the usually meek Sekirei's face contort in a look of pure hatred. "You... you... you..." She half growled over and over again, her arms starting to trembled. Finally, she snapped out of the loop and shrieked at the man at the top of her lungs. "You bastard!"

A trident appeared in her hand and she moved in on the sick punk. Koya stumbled back, putting up his hands to defend himself. The trident moved up, slipping one of the gaps around his one of his upraised hands before pushing him off his feet and too the ground, the blade sinking into the ground with ease as she pressed it down in order to keep him pinned by his captured hand.

"Do you have any idea..! Any idea what it was like!" Kuruse screamed, creating a second trident and repeating what she had done before, only with the other hand. "The things you did to me! The thing you made me do!"

Koya's reflector glasses had fallen off when he had been thrown to the ground and now he was looking up at his former Sekirei with terrified eyes from his helpless position on the ground. He tried to struggled, but the metal at his wrists won't budge."Kuruse, what are you doing! Stop! I said stop it! I'm ordering you to stop! You can't do this to me!"

Kuruse's breathing was becoming more and more rapid as she lifted up her hand one more time, making yet another weapon. "You are not my master." Kuruse said with a growl. "Not anymore."

Koya squeezed his eyes closed, too cowardly to face the end that he had gained himself. Kuruse was about to drive down the trident into his head, but before she could a hand touched her arm. It didn't grab her, or try to physically stop her, but it caused her to stall all the same.

Kurogane was looking up at Kuruse. "He doesn't have the power to hurt you. Not anymore." Her eyes seeming to look straight through her. "I don't have the right to stop you." She said, her voice sympathetic. "Just remember that this is your chose, and you will have to live with it. Do you honestly want him to make you a killer?"

Kuruse looked from the smaller Sekirei and then back to the bastard who was pinned in front of her. It slowly dawned on her that she was about to cross the line, and do something that couldn't be undone. The kind of thing that she had been struggling against ever since her freedom had first been stolen by the man. She had struggled to maintain that sense of honor under him. The memory of all those times she had experienced the pain of disappointing her Ashikabi where still fresh in her mind. Those times when she had purposely make a mistake, or delay his plans in order to let a free Sekirei escape.

By the time Kurogane lowered her arm, the moment of rage that would have led her to kill had passed, and Kuruse was beginning to cry. The tridents disappeared as she collapsed to her knees, covering her face in her hands as the tears streamed down her face.

Realizing his hands were free, the human scampered across the ground like a crab, not once looking away from the Sekirei that had nearly just did him in. It wasn't until his head hit up against a tree that he pulled himself up onto his feet and began to run.

Kurogane watched as the man went, before turning to look at the crying trident user. Kuruse was sobbing so hard that she started to choke on it. Awkwardly, the little Sekirei reached up a hand and started to pat Kuruse on the back, trying to help her.

"It's alright. Just breath in through your nose, and out through your mouth." Kurogane advised Kuruse. The blond Sekirei tried to do what she was told, trying to get some kind of hold over herself.

But even though she was crying, it wasn't entirely out of sadness.

"I'm free... I'm really free." Kuruse said, something like joy in the words that came out between her sobs. "Thank you, Kurogane. Thank you."

"Kuro." The smaller Sekirei said. "Just call me Kuro." The sound of helocopters start to be heard over the sound of Kuruse's crying, circling the area, as if trying to find the best spot for a landing.

"The MBI is here." Kuro guessed, looking in the direction the copter was in before looking back to Kuruse. "Hey, I'm getting out of here before they show up. I suggest you do the same." Before Kuruse could say anything else, Kuro was jumping up into the treeline and running away.

Kuruse was there for another minute, before she had regained control of herself, wiping away the tears with the back of her hand before pausing. The hand slowly lowered to her heart which was still beating faster than normal. She could feel a mild heat moving through her body. "Kuro..." Kuruse said, unsure why she couldn't get that name out of her mind, why it was making her smile.

* * *

"That bitch... that bitch attacked me." Koya said, unable to believe what had happened. He was struggling through the trees, having a much harder time of it without his Sekirei there to assist him. "That little scrapped brat did something. Dammit, I can't believe she made Kuruse turn on me! She was my Sekirei!"

"Turn on you, you say?" A sarcastic voice said, causing Koya to stop in his tracks. A unsettling presence filled the air, prompting Koya to gag as a feeling a death and rot swept over him. His head turned, as if pulled towards a spot up in the tree ahead of him where the voice had originated from to see a woman with gray hair and horrifying hawk like eyes staring down at him, a sadistic smile on her lips, and the disciplinary squads' coat on her shoulders.

Koya felt the blood drain out of his face. His uncovered eyes widening in terror. He knew the woman from reputation. The leader of MBI's disciplinary squad, the Kuro Sekirei.

"How about you tell me all about it?"

* * *

 **Since some people seemed to not like the length of the last chapter, just consider this to the second half of it. Though I personally like chapters being more like 3-5K words long. Not just when writing but when reading them too. A 15k word chapter is like a** **marathon when you are dyslexic.**

 **Someone who actually has some knowledge of the visual novel that Kuruse and Yahan came from informed me that Kuruse's ability was actually the power to teleport objects too herself rather than creating them like it says in the Wiki. She just happened to use it to teleport tridents from a weapons locker full of the things at the MBI.** **Still say teleporting away your enemy's panties would be a more effective tactic, but then again, most of the Sekirei don't really care about modesty.**

 **But I've already written her out as being someone who makes tridents, so I'm going to continue with it. Just being honest and saying that I made a mistake.**


	8. Chapter 8

Kuro had picked back up her shopping from where she had left it and found a place to change out of her messed up clothes and into a copy that wasn't covered in holes. She disposed of the evidence of her little trip into the forest along with the horrible costume that the twins had got her. All and all, the experience in the forest had been eye opening, though it still didn't give her any clearer picture than she had before.

She still had things that she needed to figure out, and things that she needed to do. Near the top of the list was what exactly she was going to be doing about her situation with the Ashikabi, Hayato.

She honestly didn't know anything about the kid other than that he was an Ashikabi who claimed to have the most Sekirei under his command. That and that he seemed to be of above average wealth. He hadn't seemed like a psycho. He might have even been a bit nieve. However, it was always hard to tell, and now that Kuro had made her first real move, unknowns were not something she could deal with.

Her actions in the forest had been necessary, and she had found out a lot of information that could save her life in the future. However, in the end, she might have tipped her hand a little too much.

Her original plan had been to knock out the Ashikabi before using the Rule Breaker, so that she would be able to hide the results of her little experiment, and then terminate the remaining Sekirei regardless the result. However, sympathy made her change her plans.

While letting a single individual know about her skills with creating weapons was not ideal, not may people would believe the man without evidence, and Kuro had made a point not to use any trump cards when taking down 'Yahan'.

The Black Keys and Angurvadal were interesting weapons, but nothing attention grabbing in a war between superpowered aliens. In the end, the man won't have known anymore about her than the people at MBI, and had even less incentive to share what he knew with other Ashikabi.

However, the Rule Breaker wasn't something to be ignored.

The Rule Breaker was a weapon that 'broke rules'. Any contract or agreement made, even one with the world through the use of runes, would be completely nullified by a single prick from the knife. Even the punishments that would normally come into effect by breaking the contract would be nullified, preventing either party from receiving backlash. In the world of Magus, a world where everyone used magical contracts in order to avoid betrayal, it was a tool to be feared.

However, it was not an all powerful tool.

If the medium used for forming the contract is out of reach, then you can't exactly stab it. Nor would the knife be affective against bonds that weren't based around magic. A familiar uses a piece of its masters body as a sort of antenna in order to receive the prana it needs to survive. Such a connection is not in truth a contract and as such can't be severed by Rule Breaker. Nor can Rule Breaker nullify loyalties based around friendship or love induced by magic, as they aren't contracts.

The list of holes in its abilities was long, and even when it works, the results can be unexpected. Kuro had been burned before in the past by testing Rule Breaker on a bounded field that was creating a powerful shield only for the freed unstable prana to explode in her face. Which was why testing the weapon had been important.

Kuruse's reaction to Rule Breaker confirmed what Kuro already suspected. Rather than needing Ashikabi like servants needed master, Sekirei were terminated when they lost their marks as something built into the Sekirei mark itself. If the mark had been giving the Sekirei something that it needed to maintain itself, the Kuruse would have been terminated regardless when Rule Breaker removed the seal. Though that would still have probably been a mercy to her.

The level of power an Ashikabi had over their Sekirei was... disturbing, if Kuruse's action were anything to go by. Perhaps even as disturbing than the power allowed by a command seal over a Servant, and a Servant could be made to kill themselves at a word for their master. As far as Kuro could tell, a Sekirei's loyalty was forced, and beyond their ability to resist. It was probably a fact that a good number of Ashikabi took for granted. This probably meant that Kuro's ability to free a Sekirei from its contract was probably going to scare many of them.

If the Sekirei they had been forcing to obey their will were suddenly freed, how many of them would seek revenge on their masters the way Kuruse nearly did in a fit of rage.

Kuruse was proof that the Rule Breaker did exist. Something like that was reason enough for the Ashikabi to be scared. If the Sekirei War was anything like the Holy Grail one, many of the Ashikabi would likely unite in order to hunt Kuro down.

Kuro was a survivor, one forged in the fires of the Holy Grail War. As such she knew that her best option for her own survival would be to terminate Sekirei number fifty four, Kuruse. Even if she did feel some sense of gratitude towards Kuro, that wouldn't matter if she gained a new Ashikabi. After that she would spill the beans whether she wanted too are not.

But... Kuro couldn't do it. She couldn't just ignore a cry for salvation. After everything she had seen, she couldn't bring herself to terminate the girl, not for her own survival.

Shirou had always been a contradiction; an altruist survivor. He...she could practically hear Rin's sigh of resignation. She was so hopeless. Just like in the Grail War, Kuro couldn't keep bringing herself to dehumanize the people who everyone told her were only tools of battle. The Sekirei were even more human than most Servants.

"Kuro!" "Kuro, where are you!?" "Are you here!?" "Kuro!"

Kuro stopped in her ponderings to notice Mitsuha and Mitsuki, as indistinguishable from each other as ever and seeming to be looking for her. Though how they were going about it was... strange.

One of the twins, Kuro honestly didn't know which, was staring through someone's window, prompting shouts of confusion for the house's residence. Meanwhile the other sister was down on her hands and knees next to a van as if to check to see if Kuro was hiding underneath it. She had a single hand pressed up against the van and was tilting it upwards so that she could get a better look.

They must have been doing this all up and down the streets. Kuro wondered if the twins didn't care how much of a scene they were making, but it was entirely possible that they hadn't even noticed.

"What are you two doing?" Kuro said in slack jawed astonishment of the unusual situation in front of her.

In sync, the two looked up at Kuro and their eyes widened. '''Kuro!''' They shouted together, and before the little Sekirei could even think to do anything, the two where on her.

* * *

"I see. So the young miss left in the early morning to go shopping for clothes then?" Hayato's butler, Alfred said as he met the returning party in the entry hall of the mansion.

Kuro only nodded as she shifted about in her bindings. After spotting her, the twins had tied her up and carried her back to their master's residence, in the middle of a crowded street no less. Trying to reason with them proved impossible.

"Ms. Kurogane, while I understand you did not mean to cause a ruckus, you must not go off by yourself in the future. It is highly inappropriate for a girl your age to be wondering the streets by herself." Alfred said calmly, as if the fact that a tiny girl being tied up with some kind of enhanced metal wire wasn't anything out of the ordinary for him. "If you find yourself in need of an escort in the future, merely ask and we will find accommodations for you."

"I just wanted to buy my own clothes. I didn't expect it to be a problem." Kuro said, trying her best to act like a small girl who was trying to get out of trouble. "I won't do it again."

That was a blatant lie. Kuro couldn't do the things she needed to with other people constantly breathing down her neck. She would just have to change up how she went about her business.

"But why did you go out to buy clothes?" Mitsuha whined as she looked into the bag that Kuro had brought back with her.

"These aren't nearly as cute as the things we got you." Mitsuki agreed with her sister. "Don't you like the things we bought you?"

"No." Kuro said bluntly.

'''How cruel.''' They cried together. '''And I was so looking forwards to seeing you wear the [cheerleader uniform]/[kittycat swimsuit].'''

Kuro could only do her best to surprise a shutter and try to block out the mental picture of herself in such outfits. A mental picture made more horrifying by the image of her body in her mind still being that of Emiya Shirou.

The butler ignored the comments, choosing to maintain his professional demeanor. "I will inform the young master as to your return. However..." He said looking Kuro up and down. "Did it not accrue to you to also buy some shoes during your outing?"

"Shoes?" Kuro said looking down to see her own still bare feet, covered in dirt from her little adventure. Somehow in all that mess, she had completely forgotten that she was walking around without shoes on. "I... guess I forgot to get some." She admitted weakly.

"Ah, yes. I was told that you are like Ms. Akitsu." Alfred said. Kuro didn't exactly know how to take that. Not that she had much chance to think about it before the man's next declaration. "Ms. Mitsuha, Mitsuki, would you please make sure that the young girl gets herself cleaned up."

'''Okay!''' The twins shouted happy, grabbing onto the tied up Kuro as the smaller Sekirei paled. She tried to struggle, but it was far too late. The twins were dragging her away to... the baths.

* * *

"Why me?" Kuro whimpered to herself after the second traumatizing bath given to her within a period of two days. She cursed her little body for betraying her so. The twins were giggling as they played around with each other, having exhausted Kuro to the point where it was no longer as much fun to tease her.

Kuro looked over at the two naked blonds indulging in less than innocent fun and felt herself becoming even more arousal. For some reason that she couldn't even begin to grasp, her ten year old body produced more hormones than the average full grown adult. Were Sekirei just naturally horny creature, or was this what all girls were like?

She closed her eyes and took a few breathes to calm herself down.

Really, it shouldn't have been all that surprising. Biologically, there was very little difference between the arousal from survival instincts and the arousal from the desire to have sex. It was mostly just the brain's interpretation that told you whether you wanted to escape the man or woman bearing down on you or fuck their brains out.

No matter how much Shirou and Rin had denied it later, no night ever quite matched that night in the church with the threat of Berserker hunting them in the woods.

Even in ancient times, people knew that there was little difference between the arousal in battle and the arousal of love. There was hardly any gods or goddesses of love that weren't in some way connected to one of war. They were even the same entity in some legends. So creatures like Sekirei who were naturally inclined to battle would also naturally be very easily excited in other ways.

Opening her eyes back up, she tried to force herself to have a more detached mind set. Her eyes saw the two beautiful busty blonds playing with each other's breasts in front of her, but what she was drawn to was the only real detail that matter, the tattoo like mark that rested between each of their shoulder blades. She needed information, and now was as good of a time as any to get it.

"Mitsuki, Mitsuha, can I ask you both something?" Kuro said in order to get their attention.

"Hm, what is it sweetie?" Mitsuki responded cheerfully.

"What is it like to be winged?" The twins blinked at Kuro, making her wonder if the question was too broad of a starting point, but after a second of silence the two exchanged a look before breaking down into giggles, a strong flush on their identical faces.

"Oh my, that's a bit of a grown up thing." Mitsuha said through her giggles.

"That's right. Maybe we will tell you when you're older." Mitsuki added.

'When you're older' Kuro wasn't sure what she had been expecting as a response but that wasn't it. Why were they talking about it like it was... Now that she thought about it, she didn't exactly know how the winging ceremony, or whatever it was that they called it, worked. It could have very well have been something similar to the tantric sex magic ritual. Actually, Kuruse had activated her Norito after having exchanged a kiss with her Ashikabi. So it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that winging involved some kind of...

Kuro couldn't help but to flush at the idea that the fifteen year old Hayato had somehow managed to get eighteen different alien women to agree to have sex with him as part of an ancient ritual to gain more power.

No wait, not all of them were women. Kuro had seen at least one man among the boy's harem...

Kuro canceled that train of thought, and tried to get a grip on herself. She was the Second Magus Killer, dammit. It wasn't as if she was a virgin. She can't let herself crash like a school girl at the mention of sex.

"Let me rephrase the question." Kuro said, quickly narrowing her question down in hopes of avoiding any sexual topics. "I want to know what it means to be a winged Sekirei. How and why did you become winged and what is an Ashikabi? Is there something that separates them from other people?"

'''Oh!''' The twins said together, finally understanding the question. They both crossed their arms under their ample chests and tilted their heads in mirroring fashions. '''Those are pretty hard questions.'''

"Well, how one gets winged is easy. All they have to do is get a kiss from an Ashikabi, and then they are bond to them forever and ever. Though I never really thought of the why part beyond just finding love." Mitsuki said in a voice that was probably supposed to be romantic, though the words 'forever and ever' seemed more like a curse than a blessing. Nearly every hero on the Throne would be willing to vouch for how scary a thing eternal love is. "Well, I guess there is also the freedom bit. If you don't get a Ashikabi, then you will get terminated and shipped back to the island."

"It's not like the island is a bad place, but it's kind of boring there." Mitsuha said and then shrugged. "As for what an Ashikabi is, beats me. I'm pretty sure even those scientists back at the MBI didn't really know how all of this worked. They talk about exchanging DNA and imprinting and stuff, none of them know for sure. All we know is that something that separates the Ashikabi from everyone else and lets them wing their Sekirei."

"That's not entirely true." Mitsuki mumbled, tapping at her chin. "I heard that all the Ashikabi are all really descendents of the other Sekirei from a long time ago, and that is way they can bond with us."

"I'm pretty sure that was only a rumor." Mitsuha countered. "Otherwise we could have winged each other, right?"

"We might have been able too, and the modification changed that." Mitsuki said grumpily, not liking being contradicted by her sister. "Mutsu probably knows whether or not it is true."

"You want to ask him?" Mitsuki said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hm... pass." Mitsuha admitted weakly.

Kuro frowned at the lack luster explanation of what Ashikabi were and how they fit in with the Sekirei. "If you don't know what makes an Ashikabi an Ashikabi, then how were you supposed to find one? Did they expect you to just go around kissing random people until you were winged."

The twins broke into another fit of giggles at Kuro's cluelessness. "Not quite. You see, all Sekirei have a bit of a telepathic nature to them. So when we were released, we were told to just wonder around until we 'reacted' to someone, and that person was then going to be 'destined' to be our Ashikabi." Mitsuki explained for some reason, her voice was rather sarcastic when she used the word 'destined'. Both of the sisters looked as though the word left a bad taste.

"So all of you reacted to Hayato, and that is way you are all his Sekirei?" Kuro said, trying to get conformation.

"Well... not quite." Mitsuki admitted. "You see, any Sekirei can be winged by any Ashibaki, even if it is one they didn't react too. So, some have been winged by force in order to strength the Ashikabi's power, and some of us chose our Ashikabi without waiting to react to anyone. Sis and I were like that."

"Why didn't you want to wait to react to someone?" Kuro asked, a little curious. It seemed as though waiting to react was the norm, so why did they go against it?

"We didn't for a couple of reasons." Mitsuha said, taking over for her sister. "First, we didn't want to risk getting the wrong type of Ashikabi." The girl leaned back against the wall of the bath and stared up at the ceiling. "You don't really have much experience with the world so I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't know, but there are some real bad people out there."

Mitsuki slide down into a similar position. "You got that right." She mumbled sadly. "I feel sorry for all the Sekirei who end up partnered with that sort of person."

Kuro didn't say anything. She knew full well what kind of people were in the world. As Shirou Emiya, she had seen the absolute worst that the world had to offer. She had already seen one Ashikabi who was so cruel that his Sekirei nearly killed him the moment she regained a bit of free will.

"When we were first let out into Shin Tokyo, we were just like any of the others. We had been told time and time again how the man we reacted too was going to be our prince charming. How we would be linked by the heart and that they would treat us like princesses." Mitsuha said, her hands tightening into fists. "And we believed them."

"That lasted about a day. After that, we saw our first Ashikabi Sekirei pair." Mitsuki said with a shudder. "They were trying to force us to be winged by the Ashikabi, but the two of use had numbers on our side and managed to get away."

"But the things that Ashikabi was doing to his Sekirei. They were horrible. He was treating her like a tool. Like, she was just a thing. I still remember that hollow look she had in her eyes every time he shouted at her." Mitsuha added, closing her eyes. "And this was the person she had reacted to. Her 'destined one'."

Kuro could understand what they meant. Kuruse had been an absolute mess down to her very soul because of her Ashikabi. It had been a horrible thing to see.

"After seeing that, we decided that we didn't want to find our destined one anymore. So we started looking around at the Sekirei who already found their Ashikabi and picked the best one of the bunch." Mitsuki admitted without any shame. A loving smile passed over her face. "Our little Hayato might not be perfect, but he was nicer to his Sekirei than most of the others we saw."

"Plus, he was rich, smart, talented, and cute as a button." Mitsuha added with a giggle. "Someone we wouldn't mind being in love with."

'''Forever and ever.''' They said together with a content look, small blushes appearing on their faces. Then they both sighed.

"Though, another reason is because it is pointless to be in the Sekirei Plan, if you aren't on the winning team. And with Mutsu and Akitsu around, Hayato is definitely going to be the winning team." Mitsuki said.

"In the end, only one Ashikabi will remain, and if you aren't their Sekirei, then that means you will have been terminated and taken away." Mitsuha said, with a nod of agreement. "I can't think of anything worse than being taken away from your Ashikabi, other than having one who is a monster."

"What do you mean?" Kuro asked. Not really sure why a Sekirei would be so attached to their Ashikabi.

Smiles of pure exotic moved across the girls' faces. "Kuro, being with the Ashikabi that winged you is the most wonderful feeling in the world." Mitsuha said, reaching a hand her body and touching herself, shivering at the memory of something that Kuro didn't know and was pretty sure she didn't want to know. "Now that we've experienced it... I don't think I could live on without it. This is the feeling of love."

"None of us really know what the 'big prize' is at the Ashikabi gets at the end of the road, but we don't really care. The thing that every Sekirei is fighting for is to be able to stay with their Ashikabi. The one they love with all their heart." Mitsuki said.

"Love..." Kuro mumbled, thinking hard about what she had heard.

She could understand more than the twins knew. She remembered the Holy Grail War, how at the beginning she never really thought about the wish that was being offered and only wanted to stop needless deaths. It wasn't until the prospect of keeping Saber alive and with him after the war was ended that Emiya Shirou truly felt the allure of the Grail for the first time, even though he knew that it wasn't what she would have wanted. If the Grail's wish hadn't been a trap, he might have done it anyways.

The chance to be with the person that you love forever, even if that love is something induced by magic. It was a better reason than some to go to war. But what lengths would a Sekirei go to in order to assure such a happy ever after. Just how bloody was this Sekirei War going to get? Kuro found herself pitying the Sekirei, having to fight for something that should simply be free.

Not that any of this explained what the purpose of the Sekirei War was. It only explained why the Sekirei were so willing to go along with it.

They kept saying that Mutsu was some kind of big shot who knew more than anyone else. He might have the answers that Kuro was looking for, but he was also the only person there who was a battle hardened killer. If Kuro asked too many questions, he might get suspicious.

Feeling someone running a hand through her hair, Kuro looked up in surprise to find Akitsu right in front of her, staring at her with her nearly expressionless face. How was it that someone who leaked out so much prana could sneak up on Kuro?

"Don't worry." Akitsu said softly as she continued to pet Kuro. "Even if you can't be winged, you can still be loved."

Kuro's entire body seemed to turn red as she stared straight at the ice Sekirei. For some reason that Kuro couldn't even begin to understand, Akitsu had decided to join them in the bath without taking off any of her clothes, and the already thin white fabric turning transparent and hugging her curvy form was somehow even more erotic than when she had simply been naked.

"Uh, Akitsu... why..?" Kuro stumbled over her own tongue, only to have her heart jump up into her throat as the pale blond stood up right in front of her, her hips right up in Kuro's face.

Kuro thought that she actually felt a nose bleed coming on when Akitsu spoke. "Mutsu. He wants to talk to you." She said flatly, as if that would explain everything.

Kuro wasn't sure just how much of this she could take.

* * *

"Knock, knock." Karasuba said. She stood in the doorway of Takami's hospital room, a pleasant smile on her face.

Takami looked up from her own medical reports to see the fourth Sekirei and gave a glare with the eye which wasn't covered by bandages. "Aren't visitation hours over?" She said in a tone that few would dare take with the psychotic woman, but that was what Karasuba liked about the white haired woman, that hardly anything fazed her. She was actually one of the few humans that the Kuro Sekirei could stand.

"Now don't be like that. I just wanted to make sure you were in good health after the 'accident'." Karasuba said, since they both knew damn well what happened. She held up a fruit basket with her right hand, a cigarette box balanced on top of an apple.

Takami stared at it hard before sighing and grabbing the box. "Light me, and open a window." She said as she pulled out one of the cigarettes. Karasuba laughed as she pulled out the lighter.

"So what's the damage like?" Karasuba said as she took the visitor's seat, popping her blade out of her sheath by a bit and using it to start peeling an apple.

"Got to love experimental medicine. I'd be out already if these bastards didn't want to keep me away from my work." Takami said before taking a puff. As she slowly exhaled the smoke she seemed to relax. "How about Kusano? What happened to her?"

Karasuba chuckled. "Last I heard, she was being swept away by your son. So she is probably at the first's home now. Strange thing is, he hasn't winged her yet."

Takami closed her eye, trying to decide how she felt about Kusano being around her son, Minato. "I must have raised him right, seeing as he didn't wing her right away during that whole mess."

"That's a matter of opinion." Karasuba said with a shrug, holding out an apple slice to Takami.

The white haired woman glared at her. "I'm not eating anything that has touched that weapon of yours. Did you even wash it after the last time you stuck it through some one?" Karasuba only shrugged at the accusation and popped that apple slice in her mouth, seeming to enjoy it. "Are you going to tell me why you are here or not? I'm sure you are dying to share something if you thought it couldn't wait for me to get to work tomorrow, and that you couldn't just give me a call."

Karasuba smiled a rather scary smile. "Oh, I've got a juicy story for you. Since you were in the hospital, I was sent out to recover one of the terminated Sekirei." Karasuba said with a grin. "I found the Ashikabi, running away like a coward. And before I killed him, he started spouting some nonsense about how one of his Sekirei betrayed him and started attacking him."

Takami narrowed her eye at the gray haired Sekirei off handed mentioning off killing the man. "Two things. First, that's impossible. Second, you aren't supposed to kill humans for no reason."

Karasuba shrugged. "This one annoyed me." She said, as if that was reason enough to kill him. "However, it turns out he wasn't full of shit. According to our trackers, number fifty four, Kuruse, has been 'unwinged', and her partner, number fifty seven, Yahan was terminated by her."

Karasuba grinned at the sight of Takami's eye widening and her mind going into overdrive. The Kuro Sekirei would lead them on a goose chase for a while, keeping her daughter hidden in the shadows until it was time to see what the girl could really do.

Soon, it would be up to Kurogane to decide the future of all Sekirei.

* * *

 **Sorry to you people who just can't stand Hayato's existence, but he will be making an appearance next chapter with his view point of the world. Though things will still mostly be focused on Kuro/Shirou.**


	9. Chapter 9

A dense fog lay heavy on the side of the hill that Kuruse was climbing.

She couldn't remember how she had gotten there, or why she felt such a strong urge to reach the top. She only could feel something there, pulling her along. As she walked, she would glance side to side at the world around her and wonder how such a world could possibly exist.

A world of weapons.

No matter where she looked she saw weapons. Weapons of every size, shape, and fashion imaginable. Some that she couldn't even get her head around. Weapons both mundane and otherworldly lay side by side in reddened soil. Weapons, that seemed to whisper around her as she walked past. But, no matter how carefully she listened, she couldn't catch their words.

In this world, the blades seemed to be alive, possessing an awareness that filled the air. It was almost unnerving, the sense that things that would often be classified as mere objects were staring at her. She did her best to ignore them, focusing on the path ahead of her, trying to find that which she felt like she was looking for.

Then, she saw it, a silhouette standing on the top of the hill in the distance, hardly visible through the haze. Kuruse quickened her pace, trying to reach the top of the hill before the figure could slip through her fingers.

As she got closer, he became easier to see. A tall man, more than six feet tall with tanned skin, with broad shoulders and short red hair with large patches of silver. He had his back turned to her as she approached him, so she couldn't see his face, but even so, she could tell he was a man in his prime.

She stopped a few feet away from him, not really sure what to do or say now that she had reached him. He just stood there, looking out into space.

But, before she could decide on what she should say, the man spoke. "You should choose another." The man said, his voice rigid, but sympathetic. His body didn't seem to move even an inch as he spoke. As if he was made of the same steel as all the weapons that surrounded them were.

"Who... who are you?" Kuruse asked, not understanding his words. Her hand crossed over her chest, trying to steady her rapidly beating heart. "You're my true Ashikabi, aren't you?"

"Are you so willing to follow this feeling blindly? You've had your first taste of hope. I'd suggest you give it up before you becoming intoxicated by it. Trust me when I say that no matter how sweet it tastes, it is a deadly poison." The man was trying to warn Kuruse against following her feelings, but she couldn't help it. It was different than before, when she had to struggle to maintain her sense of self under Koya's influence. It felt so warm, so comforting, like it fit her perfectly. "Everyone around me always suffers. You should turn back before you lose everything too."

Kuruse bit her lip. "Please, don't push me away." She said, feeling tears coming to her eyes. "I can't lose everything, because I don't have anything that I can lose. This feeling is all I have."

The man paused for a moment before answering. "That is where you are wrong." He said as he slowly turned around. Kuruse blinked as her vision seemed to blur around the man, his height disappearing as his hair grew out, white and red mixing together into a soft pink color. "There is always something more that you can lose." Kuro said as the small Sekirei looked up at Kuruse with her odd sad eyes.

* * *

Kuruse jolted awake at the sound of an police siren shrieking through the street next to the alley she had slept in the night before. She looked around herself for a moment before remembering where she was, along with why she was there.

Koya had always kept her and Yahan's MBI credit cards on hand, so she didn't have any money now. However, that was a small price to pay. It wasn't worth going back to that man's apartment to retrieve them. Not when she might see his disgusting face again. Even if free air smelled like a garbage dump in an alley, it was still an improvement.

Though, she would still need to think of something sooner or later. She knew from experience that hunger would start to become more and more of a problem. It had been only about a day since she last ate and she was already feeling the pains in her stomach.

She could return to the MBI, hope that they would help her get things back in order so that she could start again, but that held a risk to it. She didn't know how they would react to a winged Sekirei somehow becoming unwinged. They might try to keep her for tests, or say that she should have been eliminated from the Plan and terminate her. She couldn't risk it, not when she still had so many questions.

Her mind moved back to her dream, remembering the look that Kuro had given her. It made her whole body tingle. She wanted to see the girl again so badly.

She knew what was going on. She had been described the feeling back when she was first released by the MBI into Shin Tokyo. She was reacting. She knew it was true, but she didn't know how. Sekirei weren't supposed to react to one and other. They were only supposed to react to their human Ashikabi.

She didn't know how or why, and to be honest, she didn't care to think too deeply about it. Just like in the dream, she could feel the pull on her heart trying to lead her. So pushing herself up, she started to move, avoiding the roof tops in order to try to stay out of the way of other Sekirei. She didn't want to have any more roadblocks between her and her true Ashikabi.

* * *

Hayato Mikogami sat casually in his seat, waiting for the first class of the day to start, a book held in one hand as he propped up his head with the other.

He wasn't reading the book. He rarely read anything that didn't come in an electronic medium and didn't involve some level of interactivity. In other words, he didn't read if it wasn't part of a video game. The book only served to provide the illusion that he was reading, so as to keep his classmates from attempting to engage him in 'polite' conversation.

Hayato hated his school. It was a special private school for 'super geniuses' that all the rich people sent their heirs to, though in all honesty, since the place was practically pay to win, it was more like a social club. A social club with a bunch of people, that Mikogami had zero interest in interacting with.

Hayato shouldn't have even been there. Even though he was only fifteen years old, he had already achieved a business degree at a university in the United States. The only reason he was at this stupid school was because his parents forced him to go. Alfred always said that it was because they wanted him to make friends his own age, but Hayato knew better. They didn't care about his social life or him making friends, they only wanted their genius son to be at the school so that they could brag about it. His parents didn't care about him. He couldn't even remember the last time he last heard from his parents, let alone spent time with one of them. It had to be at least a month.

Whenever he was at school, he always did his best to ignore all of the chatter around him, as it was almost inevitably some kind of family business talk. Talk that he wanted no part of. He wasn't going to be like them, he wasn't going to be just some spoiled brat who inherited a family business, ensnared by his own position. That might have been his fate before, but the world had given him a chance and he planned on taking it. His Sekirei would liberate him from that hollow existence. He would be the one to win the Sekirei Plan and take part in the 'ascension'.

The day before might have been a bit of a stumble, he had been heavily disappointed in Yomi for losing the girl, but it couldn't be helped. Damn cheating scavengers not fighting one on one and attacking from the shadows. Didn't they care about the rules of the game at all? At least Yomi didn't break her promise to stay with him. Besides, as the Ashikabi who would win the Sekirei Plan, all the Sekirei would be his sooner or later.

Hayato looked up from his book as Professor Watanabe entered the room, making the Ashikabi stand up like all the others as the class president led in welcoming their sensei. All if it was just rules of conduct. Something that Hayato blindly followed in without any real sense of self in it. All it ever did was leave a bad taste in his mouth as he stroked the adult's ego. The teacher was just some third rate college professor who 'graced' their high school with his presence and because of it felt like he was hot shit.

"Alright class, settle down." Watanabe said, even though no one was even talking. "Now I know that summer break starts in just a few days, but I intend to use all the time we have together, so no slacking off."

Ah, Summer Break, forty days away from this cattle farm. Just five more days until he would finally be free from this pretense of being a student and able to focus his efforts more fully on the Sekirei Plan. Well, that and playing his video games.

"Speaking of which, while I know it is strange, so close to the end of our first semester, but we have a new student joining our class today." Watanabe said, hardly even trying to makes his disapproval that the school would do such a thing as let someone in so far into the semester without asking for 'his' approval. "You may come in now."

Hayato looked towards the open door and was only slightly surprised to see Kuro walking in through the door, wearing one of the white dresses that was the school uniform with a yellow bow in her hair and another around her waist. "So this is what you were up to yesterday, Mutsu." The boy Ashikabi sighed.

Mutsu was rather paranoid about his Ashikabi's safety at all times. It was hardly a secret that he had positioned nearly a dozen of Hayato's Sekirei around the school building, running security checks every single day that the boy went to school. It didn't seem to matter how many days went by without anything happening.

It all started because of a rumor that had been circulating on the Ashikabi forms a while back. A rumor that said that if you killed the Ashikabi, that it would terminate all of their Sekirei.

Of course, there was zero evidence to this effect. No one had ever killed an Ashikabi before and no one ever would. It was only a scare tactic used by some fool to try to turn people into paranoid nutters, like Mutsu. Still, even if the male Sekirei didn't believe the rumor, he was worried that someone would and that they would be deplorable enough people to actually try it, believing it was their only chance of beating a superior Ashikabi.

To this end, Mutsu had wished to put one of Hayato's Sekirei in the boy's classroom with him in the past, and would have if it won't for two major issues. The first of which was that almost all Sekirei lacked the common sense and knowledge to fit in at a school, especially one for the upper class like Hayato's. The second problem was that none of his Sekirei could pass as anything younger than seventeen, and even that was pushing disbelief.

Mutsu must have figured that while Kuro was clearly not fifteen yet, it was easier for people to accept that she had skipped ahead a few years than it was for them to accept that someone like Yomi was fifteen. And even if they realize she isn't some super genius child the semester would be over in just five more days. After that it wouldn't really matter for another forty days.

Kuro walked to the front of the class, her mode of walking a little rigid but not freezing up like some might. Some might think she was nervous, but Hayato suspected that it was because she was trying to walk in a more ladylike manner. A pattern that continued, up until she turned to face them and gave a curtsy and smile. "Hello, I'm Kagome Kurogame, please take good care of me." She said, a fairly standard greeting.

Just like before and every other time Kuro had done anything, all of it seemed a little off. It was like when you play a video game and the characters and the voices aren't quite synced so the reactions don't line up properly. It's hard to notice if you are already immersed in the game, but once you do notice it, you can't stop noticing it. Every time she does anything from smiling to tilting her head, it seems as if she is working off of a script rather than having it be natural. And whenever she gets too distracted to continue the act, her face usually shifted into the same sad, far off look that Akitsu had. Child was traumatized, but pretending she wasn't.

As grim as Hayato found the display, he couldn't help but grin inwardly at the name Mutsu must had chosen to be the girl's family name. Kagome, it's a name from an old Japanese folk song that refers to a 'lost child'. A name that's especially appropriate for the little Sekirei.

Some of the students asked a few questions about the girl's age and what her parents did for a living, and to her credit, Kuro answered, giving a good enough cover story about how she was the ten year old daughter of some MBI scientists who moved to the city to better work on their project. Luckily, Professor Watanabe wasn't willing to give up much of his valuable 'everyone look at me' time to allow for more in depth questioning, quickly telling Kuro to go and take a seat.

* * *

'I am really starting to hate the world.' Kuro thought as she found herself once again wearing a dress. While not as out there as the things the twins had bought her, it was still a dress, and she was kind of under the impression she wouldn't have to ware them anymore.

Not only that, she was going to have to change into bloomers, something that was supposed to have fallen out of use in schools because of its perverted nature, but that they apparently still had in this backwards private school. Not only that, she was going to have to change into them with all the girls locker room with all the other girls staring at her. Life was just too cruel. Couldn't Alaya give her a month to get used to being in a girl's body before dumping this shit on Shir...Kuro. Honestly, she would be happy to have one week.

The night before, Mutsu pulled her aside to inform her that she was going to be acting as Hayato's bodyguard while he was at school for the remainder of the semester. She was to stay with him at all times and keep her senses open. If she sensed any Sekirei who wasn't one of theirs, then she was to steer Hayato away from them and call for back up.

It was a simple job, and one that Kuro didn't have any problem with performing... accept for one little issue. She had no idea how to use the phone that Mutsu had given her. She struggled to even unlock the thing and once she did she was assaulted on all sides by little mini pictures on the screen. She fiddled with the thing for nearly an hour and still hadn't figured out who to even call, let alone find on this 'contacts' list that Mutsu had said was in there.

'Smart phone my ass.' Kuro grumbled to herself with a heavy sigh. Damn she was tired.

Sleeping inside of her new body still felt fundamentally wrong. Not only that, she had the hardest time getting that Sekirei from the day before out of her head. It's gotten to the point where she was in her dreams.

Kuro couldn't understand why. She thought it might have been because she was unconsciously comparing the girl to Saber, pulling up old memories. Not that they were all that similar. The two had the same eye and hair color, and they both wore blue ribbons in their hair, but that was pretty much were the similarities ended. Their overall facial structure was different, and Kuro wouldn't even compare their bodies since it felt like a betrayal to her old friend to do so. Even if she didn't seem overly busty compared to some of the Sekirei Kuro had seen, Kuruse was still a sold 'C' cup. And while Kuro didn't know her well enough to judge her personality, she didn't match up with the stoic King of Knights.

Even so, Kuro couldn't get the girl out of her head, and it made the little sleep she managed to get less than restful.

Kuro didn't bother paying attention to the class. It was a lesson on chemistry, and that was not anything new to her. The amount of understanding of chemistry it took to pull off even the most basic of Alchemy spells far exceeded what they taught at the high school level.

So rather than listen she started to pour out her prana into the surrounding area, mapping out the school with a loose structural analysis. It was an expensive trick as the cost of the spell increases by a power of three according to area, even if you don't do an in depth scan. She wouldn't have done it back when she was human, but with the reserves she had now as a Sekirei, she didn't need to worry so much.

Actually, being at the school was giving her plans.

With summer break just around the corner, the school would be empty for a good time. It was large, not close enough to any houses for her to worry about an attack on it hitting nearby people, and it had a fully stocked fridge with enough food to feed a hundred people. With all of it going to go to waste since the place would be closed until the start of the fall semester. Not to mention all of the other tools and materials in the various chemistry rooms and cleaning closets.

The place, or another school just like it, would be the perfect place to set up a home base for in case she needed to make a quick get away from the Hayato residence. She would just need to get closer to the security room so that she could figure out how to cut it off from the outside world and then she would have the run of the place for the next month. After which she should have another option lined up.

Kuro was so wrapped up in her thoughts on how to transform a second of the school into her own personal war bunker that she didn't even notice that the teacher was calling her. Though to be far, it wasn't by a form of address she was used to.

"Ms. Kagome. Ms. Kagome! Pay attention!" Kuro's eyes opened to see Watanabe glaring at her, arms crossed. "I see that our young genius believes herself to above paying attention in class. I don't know how your past schools have operated, but believe me when I say that our curriculum is much more difficult than your pervious school."

Kuro's mind drifted back to the classes she had taken during her brief stay at the Clock Tower. "Something makes me doubt that. Waver was a slave driver." She said out loud, not really thinking due to her exhausted and distracted state.

Some of the students, including Hayato, broke into a fit of chuckles as the teacher fumed. He moved over to his desk and pulled out a text book before turning to one of the pages he had marked. "I see, then you should have no trouble at all solving this." He said as he turned to the white board and started to jot down a table of chemicals at different masses. "Now then, solve for the equilibrium values of each molecule in this system."

Hayato frowned. "That's hardly a fair question. This class doesn't even get that far in an entire year." He said, challenging the teacher. Watanabe looked as though he was about to lash back at being challenged in his classroom when Kuro just got up and went to the front of the classroom.

* * *

Hayato tried to distract Watanabe away from his newest Sekirei before the idiotic man could abuse his position on the girl. However before anything could really come of it, Kuro got up and went to the front of the classroom and started to write on the white board.

Surprised didn't do it justice. He would have been surprised if she had known what an atom even was. Many of his Sekirei started off not understanding things like chopsticks, how to tie their shoes or why it was a bad thing to walk around in public naked. Yet here the smallest of them was, solving what was the equivalent of three semesters of college chemistry and doing logarithmic equations using the natural log in her head before jotting down the final answer.

"There, is that all correct, sensei?" She said, perhaps a little bit of smugness in her tone as she smiled and tilted her head in an innocent fashion. It hardly even registered to Hayato that her actions were still mechanical, as he pondered how she had been able to do what she just did.

Watanabe looked from his text book then back to the board and then to his text book again, his mouth moving, but no words coming out. He had no idea how to recover from being shown up. "I... that... good job... take your seat."

* * *

"How did you do it?" Hayato asked Kuro during lunch. Hayato had broken away from the students who were going to buy their food and went to the roof of the school with his bento, Kuro slipping away in order to follow him.

"Do what?" Kuro replied tilting her head. She knew exactly what he was talking about, but she tried to practice her act. Acting like Illya was still rather unnatural too her. It shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. Even when she was Shirou, people said she acted differently than other human beings. He was a saint, a psycho, or just plain defective. Though, that depended on who you asked.

"The chemistry problem." Hayato clarified after giving an exasperated sigh.

"Chemistry problem?" Kuro said with a frown before letting her eyebrows go up. "Oh, right. Well, the answer and all the work was written in the book he was holding. I just copied it out of there." She said with a shrug before turning back to her food. It was true that she did peak in, but that didn't mean she couldn't have done it anyways.

"Copied it out of the book? But how did you... you used your abilities to peek into the book." He said before laughing and shaking his head. "You little cheater."

"Did I do something wrong, Master?" She said.

"No, it's fine. I simply didn't realize you could use your power in such a way." Hayato said, sounding as though he actually approved. "It could be very useful. Does it have the same kind of range as when you are sensing other Sekirei?"

Kuro shook her head. "I can only get that kind of grasp on objects that are close to me. It works best if I am actually touching it. But through it I can read a book in just a few seconds. Not that I can remember much of that information for an extended period of time" She said before leaning back and looking straight up. "It's actually kind of useless."

"I wouldn't say it's useless. We will just need to plan out how we are going to use it." Hayato said with a frown. "Stop selling yourself short. It doesn't matter if you are not a strong fighter or if you are a Scrapped Sekirei, you are still mine. I won't have you defacing yourself." Kuro looked surprised at Hayato's words before she gave her first genuine smile and chuckle. "What are you laughing about now?"

"I don't know. I just felt... nostalgic for some reason." Kuro said looking back up at the clouds again. "What an unreasonable master I have." She said with a smile. However the warm feeling of nostalgia gave way to a feeling of humiliation when Hayato sighed and reached over to state patting her head.

"Well, as long as you are honestly smiling for a change." The Ashikabi said before turning back to his meal.

He had just gotten his head patted by a boy hardly more than half his age...

Kuro struggled to put down the through. She had to remember that she wasn't Emiya Shirou anymore. Holding onto those ideas would only make thing more difficult in the long run.

Still, was this how Illya felt whenever Shirou treated her like a little kid even though she was technically the older sibling?

Kuro took in a deep breath, trying to purge away the unwelcome thoughts. But she as she drew the air into her lungs she smelt something that made her hold her breath. "Oh no." She said, her eyes widening as she recognized the scent.

"Hm, is something the matter?" Hayato asked her, but Kuro didn't answer. She stood up and before the Ashikabi could do anything jumped up onto the fencing that surrounded the roof of the school. "What are you doing!?" Kuro reinforced her legs and jumped clear across the school yard an onto the street before breaking into a run towards the Sekirei she was sensing, hoping that he got to her before anyone noticed her.

If Hayato winged Kuruse, then she could kiss her secret goodbye.


	10. Chapter 10

*Growl*

Hunger was starting to nip at Kuruse as she kept moving along, following the pull on her heart. She was starting to feel a bit weaker than before, though she did her best to try to ignore it. Even if she was hungry, she wouldn't collapse from it for another day at the least. Sekirei needed to eat roughly three times as much food as the average human in order to continue to function at full strength, and since a human being can go a good week without food without damaging themselves too badly, Kuruse should be able to do two more days... she hoped. It was questionable after she had used up so much of her energy reserves in her last fight. But she didn't have much of a choice, so she would just suck it up and keep going.

She wanted too keep going. She couldn't afford to fight anyone and she couldn't blend into the crowd anymore. The dense streets of down town had been replaced by a residential zone that was relatively deserted from it being the middle of the working day. Still she hoped by simply walking along like a normal human, she might be able to remain unnoticed, even if someone actually spotted her.

She was moving further and further away from the parts of the city she had seen before and deep into the territory of the Ashikabi of the South. If one of his Sekirei spotted her then their was little chance she would have the strength to fight back. Even if she wasn't being exhausted for energy, she would have been overwhelmed by pure numbers. She would be forcibly winged for sure.

The thought horrified her, but even so, she had to keep going. She wouldn't give up on being with the one she was destined to share her life with. Her entire body was burning with that single desire, making it hard for her more rational senses to keep her from breaking into a full run and light at signal flare for anyone who might be searching for a loose Sekirei before she could find her Ashikabi to be.

However, it wasn't her who found her Ashikabi, but her Ashikabi who found her.

Kuruse didn't even believe her own eyes when Kuro dashed out from behind a stone wall that the corner of the street right in front of her before skidding to a halt, turning and looking at Kuruse was a bit of alarm. "What are you doing here?" Kuro said in a half hushed tone, as if afraid of being overheard.

Kuruse's eyes widened at the sight of the young lavender pink haired girl. She was in a pure white dress with some lacy thrills on it. It felt so odd to see her in it as it conflicted with the image in the older Sekirei's mind of the small warrior who she had seen in the forest.

Still, she did look cute in it. Too cute. Kuruse felt her face heating up and her tongue could seem to find words as she struggled to answer the girl's question. "I... came to... find... ah... I think you're... Ashikabi... my..." All the things that she had been planning to say, ever since she decided that she would find Kuro, had vanished and her head felt light. Her reaction was getting stronger and stronger.

However, it didn't even seem as though the girl was even trying to listen. Kuro's head cocked up and she 'sniffed' the air before jumping towards Kuruse, grabbing the trident users' hand and pulling her down the street, causing the taller girl to stumble a little. Kuro pulled them back into one of the lots of one of the houses and into a two foot wide gap between a fence and a garage. "Stay quiet." Kuro whispered, holding a finger to her own lips.

With a conscious effort, Kuruse closed her own eyes and steadied her heavy breathes. She could hear them. "Come on! Hurry!" "No, she want this way!" "That Scrap, what does she think she's doing!? She was supposed to let us handle things!" "She's probably not thinking anything! You know how Scraps are!" "We need to get to her before something happens..." "Our Ashikabi won't be happy if we lose another one!"

Several arguing voices moved closer to them passing only feet away as the Sekirei jumped past their hiding place at a speed that wouldn't allow them to see the two in their small crevice.

After a few more moments passed, Kuro gave a sigh of relief before frowning up at Kuruse. "What do you think you are doing here? Are you trying to get yourself captured?" The little Sekirei said, as if she was scolding a small child... so cute.

How was it that she had never noticed how cute the girl's serious face was?

"Hey... are you alright?" Kuro said, seeming to have realized that Kuruse was acting strange.

"I... I..." Kuruse said, panting slightly as her body heated up to the point where she was surprised she didn't just burst into flames, and the space between her legs was so moist that it was starting to make a spot on her skirt through her panties. "I'm... reacting..." She finally sputtered.

"...Oh... Oh shit." Kuro said her eyes widening in a mixture of surprise and panic. "You... You're reacting? So you are here because you have reacted to your Ashikabi." Kuruse could only nod. Kuro closed her eyes and gave a slight mown. "Out of everyone you could have reacted too, it just had to be him..."

"W...What?" Kuruse mumbled, unsure as to who Kuro meant by 'him'.

"It's nothing. But before we continue, you should probably keep everything about what happened in the forest yesterday a secret." Kuro said looking in the direction that the Sekirei from earlier had left in and biting her lip. "It's as much for your sake as it is mine. I'm not so sure how the Ashikabi would react to the knowledge that the bond between them and their Sekirei isn't as absolute as they think it is."

"Of course. I won't tell a soul." Kuruse agreed in an instant. She would have agreed with anything the little Sekirei had asked of her. She could have asked her to jump off a cliff and she would have done it. Granted jumping off a cliff isn't lethal to Sekirei, she probably wouldn't even get a bruised knee from it, but it's the thought that counts.

"Alright, lets get this over with." Kuro said. Kuruse flushed an even brighter shade of red, believing that the girl was inviting her to receive her wings.

"Please take good care of me." Kuruse said before literally falling on top of Kuro and throwing her arms around the child's neck. Kuro let out a cute little yelp of surprise that was almost immediately stifled by Kuruse sticking her own tongue into the girl's open mouth.

The rush of life. A flow of energy back and forth between her and Kuro. She felt it as the power flowed through her starting up a chain reaction that awaken something in side of her, bring about an incredible rush of raw strength that started built up to the point of overflowing. The pure bliss that she felt was nothing like the first time she had been winged, and as the mark reappeared between her shoulders, she didn't try to resist it, and as the warm glow of her golden wings surrounded her and her new Ashikabi, she broke their kiss and smiled down at the startled girl who's cute little face was turning the same pale shade of pink as her hair. "Now we will be together, my Ashikabi. Forever and ever."

* * *

...The fuck?

Kuro's mind was in complete shock. She didn't know what to do as the admitted beautiful young woman lay half on top of her, a look of pure happiness on her face as the golden wings of an angel spread wide behind her. She had honestly not expected this to happen. When Kuruse had said she was reacting, she had assumed it had been to Hayato.

It had seemed like a rather safe assumption to make given the facts she had to work with. Hayato was an Ashikabi that had winged eighteen Sekirei, and with each Sekirei he winged, it was supposed to become easier for him to get other Sekirei to react to him. She had been told that Sekirei couldn't wing each other, whether simply by nature or by design, she didn't know but they just couldn't.

Was this a product of Rule Breaker? Had she unknowingly removed whatever modification had been done to Kuruse that stopped her from being winged by other Sekirei? Or was it because Kuro herself was different that she could do it? What was she going to do now?

'''How scandalous...''' A pair of shocked voices said, getting Kuro and Kuruse's attention. All around them were Hayato's Sekirei who had seen the light from the winging and had returned.

"When did you get here?" In an instant, Kuruse was back up on her feet standing between Kuro and Hayato's Sekirei, her wings still spread wide and power radiating from her. "I don't care if you have me out numbered, I, number fifty four, Kuruse, won't let any of you lay a finger on my Master."

"Hey, wait just one second!" One of the twins said, taking a step back. Even if they had her completely out number, Kuruse's Norito activated.

"The tridents of my pledge... May my Ashikabi never go without a weapon!" Kuruse said, as hundreds of her golden tridents took form in the air, each one aimed for one of the Sekirei around them.

Her mantra had changed from when she had been Koya's slave, and her new weapons lacked the unstable nature of her pervious creations, growing to the point where they might have been able to last a few clashes against some weaker Noble Phantasms. If she fired off that attack...

"Kuruse stop!" Kuro shouted, causing the honey blond to pause. "They aren't enemies."

"Are you sure, Master?" Kuruse said looking over the large group.

"Yes... mostly..." Kuro said, having a bit of a déjà vu moment. It was just like with Saber and Archer. Damn, history repeated itself over and over again.

'''Mostly!? That's so mean, Kuro!''' Mitsuki and Mitsuha shouted together with identical betrayed pouts.

Kuruse looked from her new little master to the other Sekirei before finally loosening up her stance and letting the tridents vanish into thin air and her wings faded away. "If you say so, Master."

Crisis averted, Kuro turned her mind towards the next problem. How exactly was she going to explain all of this.

* * *

"You dirty little thief." Yomi said, glaring at Kuro from her corner of the dining table, where they had gathered in order to discuss what had happened with Hayato after school had ended. It had only been a day, but there was no sign of any of the cuts that Kuro had given the ill tempered Sekirei. She looked like she wanted to take out some pent up aggression on Kuro, leading to a glaring contest between her and Kuruse. "That Sekirei should have gone to our Ashikabi."

"Knock it off, Yomi. I doubt the girl actually intended this to happen." Mitsuki said coldly. "None of us even knew that it was even possible for a Sekirei to wing another Sekirei. We told her as much yesterday."

"Besides, when we got here, it was the new girl who was crawling all over our cute little Kuro." Mitsuha added, as the two double teamed against the green haired Gothic maid.

"She wasn't crawling all...she tripped." Kuro said, flushing a bit at the description of how they were found.

"That is literally the oldest excuse in the book!" Yomi shouted. "You bunch of perverts!"

"What do you mean your cute little Kuro?" Kuruse said, moving closer to her master and giving the twins a challenging stare. Something that the twins noticed and caused a mischievous glint to flash in their eyes.

'Oh god... this is my life now.' Kuro thought miserably. What had she done to deceive this?.. Oh, right. She pissed of the spirit of humanity.

"It is interesting. Perhaps scrapped numbers have some property about them that lets them wing other Sekirei." Hayato said. The only blessing to be found was that the young Ashikabi didn't seem to mind the new development. Meaning Kuro didn't need to worry about a change in the status quo just yet. He actually seemed rather excited about the whole development. "This would be able to explain why they are able to become self-winged in the first place. An interesting theory, what do you think, Mutsu?"

"Who knows." Mutsu said with an unconcerned shrug. "You sure you are alright with this?"

"Of course. Kuro is Kuruse's Ashikabi and I am Kuro's Ashikabi. So either way, she still belongs to me." Hayato said with a grin. "If anything, this is better. We still don't know all the rules of this game. I might have need of another Ashikabi in the future and since she has winged a Sekirei, she could arguable be called an Ashikabi. It could be a useful loop hole later on."

"That logic only applies if she can be trusted to follow instructions and not simply 'forget' them all the time." Mutsu said, giving Kuro a glare. "You were supposed to call for reinforcements the moment you sensed the presence of any possible enemies, not go chasing after them."

"Yeah, about that." Kuro said, taking out the cell phone. "No one actually explained to me how this... thing works."

Everyone in the room just stared at her. "You don't know what a phone is?" Taki, the teal haired woman, said in shock. Even Kuruse was looking at her master with a bit of surprise.

"O...of course I know what a phone is!" Kuro shouted in embarrassment. "I just... don't know how to use this kind of phone."

"We really do need to remember that we are dealing with a Scrapped Number." Yomi said, face-palming. Even if Sekirei were released out into the city lacking some common sense, they were usually taught how to used a phone.

Hayato gave a small sigh and looked over at Kuruse. "Do you know how to use a phone?" He asked, relieved when the Sekirei nodded. "Good, then teach Kuro how to use one. Consider learning that to be today's task for you." He then got up from his chair and started to head out the door, Mutsu on his heels. "I'll be in my room if anyone needs me."

They were back in Hayato's room with the boy picking up one of his video games when Mutsu started talking. "Hayato... I've been thinking."

"Hm, what about?" Hayato asked, glancing over at the man.

"About number one zero nine, Kuro." Mutsu said calmly. "There were only one hundred and eight Sekirei. I'm sure of that. So I have been thinking about how exactly there could be a hundred and ninth."

"I can think of a couple of reasons, though admittedly they are mostly just people miscounting. If there were one hundred and eight Sekirei eggs, then wouldn't there be inconsistencies for identical twins like Mitsuha and Mitsuki? I am pretty sure that are two other pairs of identical twins within the game. Which would mean a hundred and eleven Sekirei in total." Hayato said, showing that he had also given the subject some thought.

"That would only be if they counted the eggs pre-fertilization. In post-fertilization the eggs would have already split. Though you could be right." Mutsu admitted with a nod. "However, around ten years back, MBI attempted a cloning project using the DNA of the single digits in an attempt to make more Sekirei."

"Really?" Hayato said with a frown. While he wasn't opposed to there being more Sekirei, the uniqueness of them would be lost if they were mass produced.

"None of the clones were viable and the project was branded a failure and canceled. However, before it went under, they were experimenting with mixing in human DNA in with the Sekirei's in an attempt to make it more stable." Mutsu explained. "Of course, they used genetics taken from Ashikabis who worked with the lab."

"Which could explain both there being a number one hundred and nine and how she could wing another Sekirei." Hayato said, following Mutsu's train of logic. "It could also explain why she is so clueless. They didn't intend for her to be a part of the Sekirei Plan at all, she just escaped from whatever lab they were keeping her at." Hayato smiled as he finally got through all of the pre-game cut-scenes and into his game. "Very interesting."

"Yes..." Mutsu said, knowing that he had lost his master's attention the moment the cheerful sound effects started playing. "The only question is, who's genetics did they use?"

* * *

"..." Kuro was at a lose for words as she stared down at the device in her hand. Sure she had been dead for sixteen years, but she hadn't expected technology to move forward so fast. This 'smart phone' thing was like an entire computer that fit in the palm of your hand. That... that was just insane. 'It even has internet.' She thought in wonder, realizing that all the information she had been wanted to check up could be done on the phone without having to worry about sneaking off to find a computer.

"Master, are you alright?" Kuruse asked, concerned about Kuro's silence.

"Ah, yes, I'm fine." Kuro said, giving Kuruse a kind smile. "Thank you for showing me how to use my phone."

"It's no problem at all. If you ever need anything you can just ask me. Alright, Master?" Kuruse said cheerfully.

Kuro did her best not to twitch at being called 'Master'. It made her think of Saber. Of through few weeks they shared together and the bond of Master and Servant.

"Master..." Kuruse started uncomfortable, glancing around to make sure that the two of them were alone before continuing. "Are... are you really Hayato's Sekirei?"

Kuro thought for a second, wondering just what she would say, before finally deciding on the truth. There was no point in hiding anything from her. Loyalty was not going to be an issue. A thought that gave her a pang of guilt, knowing just what kind of control she had over Kuruse, and unlike with the control seals where you could just choose to not order your Servant around, this kind of influence was a constant. It was only fair to be as open with Kuruse as she could expect her Sekirei to be open with her.

"Kuruse, I have a lot of secrets. Things that I am hiding from everyone here." Kuro said not worried about being over heard. She had already scanned the area to make sure that no one was in earshot and there were no bugs that could listen in on them... unless there was something in the phone that was made to do that... Honestly, phones were probably going to be the death of her. "That said, I am not planning on keeping any of those secrets from you, though it would probably take weeks just to explain it all and a lot of it will be hard to believe, I promise I won't try to hide anything from you. I might not have planned on winging you, but now we are in this together. I'm going to be putting my faith in you from now on."

Kuruse blushed at the show of confidence. "I will do my best, Master." She said with a bit of pride.

"You don't need to call me Master. Just Kuro will do." Kuro smiled. "The two of us are partners. I'll be depending on you and you can depend on me."

"Ye...yes master, I mean Kuro." Kuruse said, correcting herself as her blush grew a little stronger.

"You don't need to force yourself." Kuro said with a small chuckle before her face turned serious. "As for your question about if I am working for Hayato, I guess the best answer is that I am for now. I only woke up in one of the MBI's labs three days ago, and I knew nothing about the Sekirei or what was going on, nor did I have any place to go, or any money. Right now, Hayato has provided me with shelter, food, and valuable information. He also doesn't struck me as being an immediate threat to either me or any innocent people. So for now, I will follow him."

Kuro was prepared to spill the beans. To explain to Kuruse everything she would need to know about him/her. However, before that conversation even got started, it was interrupted by a familiar sound.

*Growl*

Kuruse flushed bright red and closed her eyes. "Did you have to mention food..?" The honey blond Sekirei almost whimpered. "I haven't ate anything since yesterday..."

Kuro blinked a bit in surprise before letting out a snort of something close to laughter. "I guess everything else can wait. Come on, I'll make you something to eat." Kuro said, before starting to show her new partner towards the kitchen.

* * *

 **Sadly my computer is now officially beyond use, as the screws connecting my monitor to the rest of the laptop came undone somehow and the thing got ripped off. (my laptop was old enough for the screws to have rusted away.)**

 **Managed to recover some of what I wrote, but until I get a new laptop I'm probably not writing anything new.**

 **All of this was what I had written about four days ago as the other half of the chapter was lost to the death of my computer.**


	11. Chapter 11

*Sigh**Sigh*

Mitsuha and Mitsuki both let out heavy sighs as they wondered back through the halls of Hayato's mansion, the day's latest development weighing heavy on their hearts.

"Hey sis, you don't think that we are going to have to... you know... fight Kuro, do you?" Mitsuki mumbled weakly.

"N..no way!" Mitsuha half shouted, shaking her head so that her long twin tails flapped about. "We don't have any reason to fight her!"

"But... there can only be one Ashikabi in the end." Mitsuki said miserably.

"Well, she isn't a real Ashikabi, so she doesn't count!" Mitsuha snapped, trying to convince herself that as much as her sister. That's how it had been before. They hadn't needed to worry about becoming friends with little Kuro because she had been a Scrapped Number, not a real part of the Sekirei Plan, and therefore not an enemy. She wasn't even competition for the affection of their Ashikabi like the other girls. They had opened up to her and let her into their hearts, believing that they would never have to stand against her.

Now, they weren't so sure.

"I hope you're right." Mitsuki said, taking in a deep breath to let loose enough sigh. However, the breath got caught in her lungs for a second when she smelled something. "Hey Mitsuha, do you smell that?"

Mitsuha blinked at the sudden change of subject before sniffing the air, finding the same aroma that her sister had. "Wow, that smells good. Come on, let's find out what it is."

The sisters followed the aroma back to the dining room and found the new girl, Kuruse, rapidly eating from a very large plate covered in some kind of food that the twins didn't recognize. They looked like round balls of fried dough covered in a sort of orange sauce.

…They looked like they were glowing…

Kuruse was so preoccupied with eating, that she didn't even notice the sisters walking up behind her until they spoke. "Wow, what is that?" Mitsuha asked, getting a bit of a jump out of Kuruse.

"It… It's, um…" The girl stammered, not really knowing herself what it was she had been eating, nor how to interact with these two Sekirei.

"What ever it is, it smells amazing." Mitsuki said taking in a deep breath. "Hey, can I try one?"

"What!? No! There're mine!?" Kuruse half shouted, spreading out her arms in an attempt to guard the food from the invaders.

The twins frowned at the display. "Hey, hasn't anyone ever told you to share." Mitsuki said as she and her sister tried to reach around to grab one. "Come on, just one bite."

"No, get back!" Kuruse said, trying her best to hold off the twins with a surprising amount of desperation. However, while she was busy fighting off the twin tailed twins, Akitsu came into the room and had reached over the table, taking one of the treats off of the large plate. "Hey, give that back!"

Akitsu looked at the small ball for a second before calmly popping it into her mouth. Mitsuki and Mitsuha both raised an eyebrow as a bright red flush spread across the quiet Sekirei's face and she gave a slight moan of satisfaction. "Akitsu… you alright?" Mitsuha asked, not used to seeing such a strong reaction from the ice Sekirei about anything.

"I… I think this is what love tastes like." Akitsu said, her usual monotone voice having… something in it that the others couldn't exactly place.

While Kuruse was distracted, Mitsuki and Mitsuha took their chance to grab one of the pieces of food. Then, exchanging glances, they each popped their stolen treat into the other's mouth. ''' Ahhh ''' The twin's moaned as they slowly chewed the little ball. By the time they swallowed, each of the blond sisters was feeling light headed.

"That… that was amazing." Mitsuha said, slightly short of breath.

"I've never tasted anything half that good in my whole life." Mitsuki agree. "I've got to have more of that."

"No! You can't!" Kuruse cried out again. "My Master made it especially for me, you can't have any!"

'''Your master?''' Mitsuki and Mitsuha said together in a bit of surprise. But before Kuruse could respond another overpowering scent filled the room, coming from the kitchen door.

A moment later, the door opened, and Kuro came in, carrying a large bowl full of what looked like fried rice with thin strips of chicken. "Kuruse, the fried rice is…" Kuro started before seeing the other four Sekirei in the room all staring at her, Kuruse still leaning over her plate in an attempt to shield it from the others. "*sigh* I'll make more."

* * *

"This doesn't make any sense at all." Hayato said as he stared down at his soup. A soup that was better than many he had tasted at the high-end restraints his parents had once dragged him to for dinner parties. "They didn't bother to explain to you anything about what a Sekirei even is or explain to you how to use a phone, but they found the time to teach you how to cook to the standards of a five-star restaurant?"

Hayato sat at the table along with sixteen Sekirei who were all eating like they had never tasted food before. Granted almost everything they had eaten up to this point had been take out or meals simple enough for them to make themselves, since Hayato didn't want to heir the kind of kitchen staff needed to prepare food for over twenty individuals.

It wasn't because he couldn't afford the expense, it was that the Sekirei were supposed to be a secret of sorts, and it was unlikely that the maids and chefs would not ask questions. It was why Alfred was stretched so thin, trying to take care of the estate with all of the problems that comes with housing twenty superpowered individuals with little common sense.

Kuro laughed a little awkwardly, scratching at the back of her head. "You're exaggerating. All of this is just stuff I throw together from the ingredients that were available in the kitchen. A well-cooked meal requires preparation time and proper ingredients. It isn't the kind of thing that can just be made up in twenty minutes."

The entire room seem to freeze.

She considered this to be second rate? It made them all wonder what the girl could do when given proper time and resources. "Holy Ashikabi…" Taki said under her breath as the mist user tried to fight down a bit of drool that was seeking to escape her mouth.

'That still doesn't explain why they taught her to cook in the first place.' Hayato thought, scratching his chin. Then something accrued to him. "Kuro, you use your ability to extract knowledge for your cooking, don't you?" He asked, trying to confirm something.

"Hm, yeah. It helps me keep the ratios of the ingredients just right, better than if I was following instructions based on measuring cups." Kuro said, not finding any reason to deny it.

"I see." Hayato said, storing this bit of information away as he through about how he would phrase his next question. "Just how detailed is the information that you get from your power?"

Kuro blinked a little, making a show of thinking about the question, even though rather than considering how much knowledge she got from her Structural Analysis, she was more wondering just how much she wanted to tell him. It wasn't as though it was a powerful ability or related to any of her trump cards, so she just gave an honest answer, carefully wording it so that it wouldn't reveal her knowledge of other things.

"Not really sure. I think it is only limited by my own ability to process and understand the information." Kuro said tilting her head a bit. "I don't know how to describe it. It's more like something you have to experience for yourself in order to get."

Structural Analysis was one of those corner stones of Thaumaturgy that couldn't be explained properly to anyone who hadn't experienced it, as Structural Analysis didn't analyze the target's physical being, but rather the idea or soul of the object. Something so fundamentally key to its existence that to understand it was to understand the object itself. The more complex the idea or soul, the harder it was the understand. Something like a rock which has the idea of a rock was much easier to understand than the idea of a rocket, and once you get into actually living things, stuff was just too complex for a simple spell like Structural Analysis.

Of course, the Atlas organization was said to have a more powerful version of the spell, one that gave absolute knowledge of not only the idea of an object, but also its physical existence, which allowed for them to use their special, more powerful branch of alchemy, but they had guarded the secret of it to the point where they cut themselves off from the outside world for over two thousand years, not letting a single soul leave their headquarters. The Alchemists of the Atlas organization were as secretive, powerful, and crazy when compared to an average magus as a magus would be to the normal person.

"Could you gain information on the objects at the atomic level?" Hayato asked, being more specific in his line of questioning.

"Well… yes and no. I can gain an understanding of the quantity and structure of the atoms, and how much energy they contain, but not their exact position and speed." Kuro explained.

"I see, so you can't over step the uncertainty principle, but beyond that, you know just about everything." Hayato mumbled, a frown crossing his face. Kuro was actually a little surprised that they boy even know what the uncertainty principle even was. Sure, it was a buzz word that people might recognize, but not many of them knew what it actually meant.

"Is something the matter?" Mutsu asked, noticing his Ashikabi's expression.

"What she is describing is a lot of information. A human brain shouldn't be capable of handling so much, though since she is a Sekirei, I'm not sure, but…" Hayato said, glancing over at his right-hand man. "It is entirely possible that this is related to her spotty memory."

The boy noticed the recognition in Mutsu's eyes as the male Sekirei connected the dots. If little Kuro was being made to practice her ability, it was entirely possible that some of the information she already knew would be pushed out in order to make room for the new data provided by her ability. This theory became even more plausible when they considered the fact that scrapped numbers tended to overdo how much power they used. It seemed likely to them that when Kuro winged herself and became a scrapped number, she overloaded her own mind and erased valuable information, including her own name and what she was.

"Spotty memory? What spotty memory?" Kuro asked, genuinely confused.

"Ah… don't worry about it. Just try not to overdo your power in the future." Hayato said with a weak attempt at a smile.

Kuro didn't understand, but it seemed as though her answers had satisfied his curiosity. She just shrugged her shouldered and started back towards the kitchen.

* * *

 **This bit was supposed to be in the last chapter, but I had to rewrite it after my old computer falling to pieces. I've been putting off this story because I know I am going to have to deal with people's shit in the future, and I am not looking forward to it.  
**

 **One thing I am going to put right here and right now is this that I handle the idea of 'True Magic' a little differently.**

 **Most people seem to have a True Magic being something that can't be done using modern technology. This isn't exactly right.**

 **What a true magic is, is something that defies a law of Science. Not simply something that science can't do. For example, Saber teleported to Shirou using the command seals. Science hasn't created a way to teleport, but it doesn't defy any law of science.**

 **However the ability to move around energy between parallel worlds is introducing new energy into existence in one of them. This goes against the laws of science because energy can't be created or destroyed.**

 **The reason for why I am pointing this out is because it becomes an issue later when I am pointing out one of the things that is claimed to exist in the Nasuverse, Atlas's Alchemy (the way it is described in the wiki) , can't exist without the involvement of a True Magic, because the knowledge required to preform it is scientifically impossible to possess because of the uncertainty principle. Meaning that Atlas is full of shit and have been bluffing the rest of the Association for over two thousand years with none existent alchemy based abilities and weapons of mass destruction.**

* * *

 **Challenges!**

* * *

 **I have decided to post my own challenges underneath some of my new chapters for the coming weeks to see if anyone will actually do them. I got a complete list of them on my profile page, but on one ever reads profiles.**

 **I will say though that just because I say it is a challenge doesn't mean I might not write it in the future if I can get enough support and manage to motivate myself.**

* * *

 **(Fate/Stay Night X Percy Jackson)** : Atheist: Shirou didn't want anything to do with the Gods. They were annoying, self-centered and destructive. It's too bad they didn't seem to care about his unwillingness to get involved. With the threat of humanity becoming caught in the cross fire of two of the idiot brothers, Shirou has to help escort two preteens in their quest to find Zeus's stolen thunderbolt before the big baby blows his top. Fuck the Gods. (Possible pairings, AthenaXShirou HecateXShirou)

\- Shirou is reincarnated but not as a demigod. He knows Percy from school and jumped in to protect him at the museum.

\- Shirou openly doesn't like the gods and advises Percy to stay as far away from them as possible.

\- Shirou protects Percy's mom from the Minotaur

\- Shirou views Poseidon as a rapist and Athena as a curse happy bitch.


	12. Chapter 12

Kuro was sitting on the edge of the bed she was assigned to share with Kuruse. Even though the boy's mansion was big, it didn't have enough rooms for everyone to have their own bed, and since Kuruse was Kuro's Sekirei, they had been assigned to share the same room.

It had yet again reminded Kuro of Saber, though the King of Knights hadn't seemed quite so excited when she suggested that the two of them slept in the same room. And she had never suggested that they shared the same bed. Kuro hadn't exactly been comfortable as she battled with the strange raging hormones of her small Sekirei body, as Kuruse grabbed at her in her sleep.

Giving up on getting much sleep, Kuro when to her phone and got onto the internet, hoping to find out a bit more about her situation. She wanted to conform that she was still in Shirou's old world. Though what she found was more than what she had expected for.

She was looking down at the smart phone in her hand, half reading the old news clipping. It was a news article done on Fuyuki City. Or rather, what had once been called Fuyuki City, before the MBI purchased the half the city south of the river and the surrounding forest, the half that was referred to as the Shinto District, declared it an independent nation and renamed it Shin Tokyo. The article contained details of the mass construction being done in the city, and all the repairs being made to the part that had been burned to the ground during the world-famous Fuyuki fire which practically burned half the town to the ground. The same fire that had practically given birth to Emiya Shirou.

Thinking back, Kuro thought she recognized some of the buildings she had seen in the city center. Rin had always said that all those rush job buildings set up after the fire all looked the same. Kuro hadn't even noticed that they weren't just similar, they were the exact same buildings.

If at any point Kuro had crossed the river to the north, she would have found herself back in the same old streets where she had grown up as Shirou. The part of the city that was called the Miyama District.

Equipped with the knowledge that he was in Fuyuki, the Sekirei War took on new context.

Why was this happening? The Holy Grail had been deconstructed in the year 2000. Shirou had been there. So why is it that Kuro finds herself in the same place, twenty years later, with nearly the same events going down. Did someone find a way to recreate the Greater Holy Grail? Were the Sekirei just a substitute for Heroic Spirits in another horrible ritual? Was anyone really stupid enough to create another Holy Grail War?

Of course someone was that stupid. There was always a magus willing to pursue any line of research, no matter how bloody it would turn out. Even if it was dangerous enough to possibly destroy the world. The fact that the Clocktower willfully allowed the Holy Grail War to happen again and again, despite the threat it posed to the secrecy of magecraft, was proof enough that there were magi in the world who could give it a try. But in Fuyuki? Why didn't Rin put a stop to it?

Closing the internet app, Shir… Kuro opened up the dial screen and started to punch in Rin's phone number. When she was immediately thrown to a recorded message informing her that the number had been disconnected, she began to fear the worst.

"Don't worry. She probably just stopped bothering to keep having a phone." Kuro said to herself, trying to think of a way to get into contact with his… her old friend.

While it was true that Rin hadn't been as bad as other magus when it came to modern day appliances, given that she went to a normal high school where using a computer was a must, she didn't exactly have a lot of people who she would have used a phone to call. After Shirou disappeared, it was doubtful that she would have kept her old phone line alive. This was a problem in and of itself, since who around Rin could she actually call who would be able to get them in touch again?

…She could call 'that man'.

A shiver went up the spin at the mere thought. Shirou had been shocked to find out 'that man' had a phone. Shirou just could not imagine anyone ever calling him. It just wasn't something that was done. You didn't just call the Wizard Marshal to go a grab a beer or invite over to dinner. And if you were in an emergency situation than he was likely to make it worse, if he wasn't the cause of it. The man was insane. Kuro didn't even want to imagine what the man would do if he found out about her current condition. Death was probably preferable.

No. There was no way she would reach out to that vampiric asshole.

Hardly anyone in the moonlit world actually knew how to use a phone, and the number of people who Kuro could actually trust was an even shorter list. Kuro created a mental list of every person Shirou had known who she could trust, trying to find one who would have a phone or email account, someone who wasn't so ingrained in the bullshit culture of the Clocktower that they thought that a computer was no more useful than a pen and parchment.

Kuro started to punch in another number, hoping that the guy she was thinking of hadn't changed his phone number in the last sixteen years, or gotten himself killed for mouthing off to the wrong person.

* * *

Waver Velvet, or Lord El-Melloi II as some may call him, was on break.

God of War: Ragnarök had just been released, so he had canceled his classes and told all the whiny shits who plagued his free time to go fuck themselves and that he had important work to do. The Undying God difficulty level wasn't going to beat itself.

Waver took some pleasure in not being surprised at fucking all when it turned out that Tyr was the bad guy after an early fight removed Odin from the picture. It was just the style of the long running God of War series. They wouldn't have paid so much lip serves to the God of Justice being the only reasonable god out there if they weren't going to have him be a self-righteous asshole with his own agenda and a plan to use Kratos to fight his battles for him.

Still, it was a good story, and the combat, though not as satisfying as some of the earlier games due to the camera hugging the player too close for you to get a good look at the action, was at least challenging and immersive. He'd give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Waver had grinded for hours, trying to get his equipment to the top tier so that he could tackle the last and hardest challenge in the game, a sort of boss rush set in Valhalla, in which you were expected to fight and kill twelve legendary Norse heroes, each one having the stats of a normal boss, one after another. And in undying god mode, there was no healing and no checkpoints for the entire fight. One mistake and you had to start the two-hour long encounter all over again.

The current boss was Siegmund, his body cursed to take on the form of a man-wolf creature. The battle crazed beast being forced to act as one of Odin's guard dogs even in the afterlife. Because of the boss's quick movements and tight camera, the player had to rely entirely on the radial alert machinic and use the quick turn buttons to make sure they could stop the beast from simply moving around their guard and attack their back side before they could wrestle their camera around to point in the right direction.

He was most definitely the most annoying of the stages that Waver, since you had to get a dozen tenth of a second parry windows in order to beat him, but the old magus was nearly through with it. Just two more parries and he will have perfected this stage of the boss rush. He performed the quick turn, facing the charging beast. He was ready for the… *Buzz!* *Buzz!* *Buzz!*

His phone went off, breaking his immersion and causing him to parry one twentieth of a second too early. Kratos took a claw to the face and his health bar dropped down into the reds. "FUCK!" Waver swore, pausing the game and grabbing at his phone. It was a good thing his phone was reinforced with magecraft, else he would have likely crushed the thing in his rage. He didn't recognize the number, and it was from out of country. "Japan." The man growled, sliding his finger across the screen to answer, he brought the phone up to his ear. "I swear, if this is a telemarketer, I am going to curse you to death over this phone line." He was already preparing the runes necessary to preform such a feat. He only stopped when he heard a small chuckle on the other side of the line.

"You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice, Waver." A child's voice said from the other side of the line.

So, it was someone who knew who he was. Dammit. Any magus worth their magic circuits would have enough magic resistance to survive an attempt to curse them over a phone line. He'd have to hunt them down the old fashion way in order to get his vengeance… maybe he has been playing too much God of War. "Alright, you know my name, now who is this?"

There was a short pause on the other end of the line before the person answered. "It's me, Waver. It's Emiya."

Waver's grip on his phone began even stronger and his eyes widened. All thoughts of his gaming session faded away in an instant. Different thoughts of vengeance came to his mind, rage that anyone would try to pull a prank like this on him. But at the same time, he couldn't help but feel the sting of hope. "…Prove it."

"Alright… A few months before I was stuck with my sealing designation, I had to stop you from trying to assassinate the writers for Final Fantasy 10 part 2." 'Emiya' said, bringing up the past.

"…While that is true, a lot of people could have found out about that." Waver said, feeling a twitch in his temple at the mention of that bastard spin-off game.

There was a pause as 'Emiya' tried to think of something that would convince Waver as to who he was. "Alright, at one time, you were showing me your memories of your time with Rider during the Fourth Heaven's Feel, and in one of those memories you ran into a young girl who happened to be my older sister figure, and Rider told you to make her your love interest character."

Waver froze, thinking back to that embarrassing time with his former servant, Alexander the Great, and the preppy Japanese girl. "Those crazy bastards." Waver mumbled, bring a hand to his face and rubbing at his eyes.

"Come on Waver, it was cute. You know Fugi-nee chose to become an English teacher because of you." Emiya teased.

"Shut the hell up, Emiya!" Waver shouted angrily before taking a deep breath. "It… it really is you."

"Yeah, it's me." Emiya said.

His voice was different, but it was definitely him. So, Waver took a second-deep breath and let it loose. "YOU BLOODY ASSHOLE!" He screamed into the phone. "Sixteen years! Sixteen fucking years without a single goddamn word! We thought you were dead!"

"I was dead." Emiya said quickly, interrupting Waver and giving him pause.

"…What?"

"After a fight against one of the Dead Apostles, I was grabbed by the Clocktower's Enforcers, taken away to a lab. But before they dissected me, Alaya appeared." Emiya said.

Hearing the name of the Will of Humanity, felt his heart sink. "Emiya, please tell me you didn't."

"I'd like to say I'm not that stupid… but considering that fact that I told her to go to hell, you could say I was even stupider." Emiya said with a laugh. "Even though I didn't accept her offer, she didn't want people experimenting on trying to make more Reality Marbles, so she caused by body to spontaneously combust. Then she took my soul and placed it in another body. I woke up in some kind of science fiction test tube about three days ago. I only just recently confirmed that I was in the same timeline."

"…I need a smoke." Waver said with a sigh, reaching for his cigar case. Once he had lite one and took a long puff he tried to continue the conversation in a more casual manner. "So, what was the afterlife like? Did you get a peak?"

"No. Seamless transition from being burned alive to waking up in a large jar of strange fluids. Though apparently sixteen years went by." Emiya said before asking his own question. "Rin, I haven't found a way to contact her. Is she… doing alright?"

"…I hope you enjoyed your time back on this side of the void, because she's going to murder you when she finds you." Waver said, thinking to the short-tempered woman. "She took your disappearance hard, harder than the rest of us. She kept saying that you were still alive somewhere and had just gone deeper into hiding. She claimed that sooner or later, something would happen, and you would pop out in order to be the stupid hero we all knew you were… Sixteen years is a long time to remain optimistic. She only managed to last for five." There was nothing but dead air on the other side of the line. Waver knew he was being cruel, but it took real pain to drive the point home to someone as stupid as Emiya Shirou. "Maybe you'll actually think about the people you're leaving behind next time you are about to decide to throw your life away. *sigh* Who I am I kidding, you'll never fucking change."

"Waver, I…"

"I don't want hear your excuses." Waver snapped, cutting Emiya off before he could make his same old arguments. After a moment of silence, Waver decided to push the topic of conversation along. "You said you woke up in a test tube. Homunculus?"

"I wish it was that simple." Emiya said with a sigh. "Apparently I'm in a body belonging to an alien race called the Sekirei. Or they claim they are part of an alien race. To my knowledge all of them were born on Earth and I haven't seen any proof of their claim, but their magic cores are different from the artificial circuits used in the homunculi I've seen in the past."

"…Magic core? You have a magic core!?" Waver half shouted, nearly dropping his still burning cigar in shock. "A third-rate moron like you gets a magic core. Life is so unfair." Waver could only dream of having that much Od. Skilled and knowledgeable as he was for a man who might as well have been a first-generation magus, he had barely any prana reserves at all.

"Is that really what you are going to concentrate on?" Emiya asked.

"Yes. It is." Waver freely admitted.

"Waver, I think the Sekirei are being used as a replacement for Servants in someone's attempt to recreate the Holy Grail Wars." Emiya said, attempting to sound serious but only further emphasizing the odd qualities of his new voice.

"Let me guess. It's the MBI, isn't it." Waver said, taking a shot in the dark.

"How'd you know?" Emiya asked, probably hoping for more information.

"Emiya, they are a trillion dollar global-mega-cooperation that specializes in experimental medicine and own their own private city in JAPAN. Anyone with half a brain could tell you they're evil. That, and your caller ID places you in Japan." Waver said, taking a drift on his cigar before adding. "I personally thought it was going to be zombie related, since that is the standard cliché, but aliens works too."

"Does the Clocktower know about this?" Emiya asked.

"Not sure. It's possible that they have people investigating. It's also entirely possible that someone up top is in on it. Both the Clocktower and Church took part in organizing the Grail Wars before finding out about how the grail had been corrupted. Wouldn't surprise me at all if some of them are trying a different method to achieve the same results." Waver said, tapping his finger. "If it is based on the same principles, then there is a chance that they have been taking information about the ceremony from the families that had been involved in setting the grail up in the first place. Might be able to find evidence of espionage."

Waver's man line of work, outside of his teaching, was acting as an agent for Reines El-Melloi Archisorte, acting as her private investigator and spy when needed. He had been told in the past to investigate the MBI, but beyond the founders' backgrounds, it hadn't been a fruitful search. Trying to spy on an organization like the MBI was like trying to find a sunken pirate ship in the middle of the ocean. If you don't have a lead, you aren't going to find shit. There was simply too much stuff to dig through it all.

"How much do you know about the MBI?" Waver asked Emiya.

"I'd never heard of it before I woke up inside one of their tanks. Beyond them being somehow involved with the Sekirei and that they are forcing the Sekirei to fight, I don't know anything about them." Emiya admitted.

"Why am I not surprised. You never did pay any attention to the research side of things." Waver couldn't help but to roll his eyes. Emiya was a spellcaster at heart, viewing magecraft as a mere tool rather than a way of life, like the other magus did. "The founders of the MBI were all third-rate magus from Japan. None of them had any family crests or even a family work shop and all of them had shit magic circuits. Each of them went to a normal university and became skilled with computers. They erased recorded evidence of magecraft from databanks for a living. They were nobodies, less than nobodies, until around nineteen years ago. That's around the time they came forward with a new invention, a mundane machine which could produce low level alchemy without the use of any form of magecraft."

"That explains some of the weapons I've seen." Emiya mumbled.

"As you can imagine, people were pissed. Saw it as some kind of heresy, using technology to preform alchemy. But the group started to use that technology to mass produce new medicines, made billions of dollars in a few years, and then bribed the Clocktower into simply not caring. Alchemy had never really been magecraft anyways, or does it follow the same limited resource logic, so it didn't matter if the world was made aware of its principles and could use technology to replicate it, so long as none of it lead back to the existence of the magus. The MBI then proceeded to make so much money that they basically conquered the mundane world."

"Do you think that they would try to revive the Holy Grail Wars?" Emiya asked.

"Definitely. If they thought that they could get away with it. And considering their specialty is burying information, they probably could." Waver said. "One of the founders, Hiroto Minaka, was one of the guys in charge of getting rid of all the evidence from the Fifth Heaven's Feel. From what I heard, the man's become obsessed with legends."

"…You have to be shitting me. No one would…" Emiya seemed to be struggling to find words.

"What is it now?"

"Right now, I'm in an alliance with one of the masters of the MBI's war. The guy isn't a magus, just some rich kid. The weird thing is, he's convinced that the entire thing is just an elaborate game. I thought the kid was just being naive, but… you think it's possible that this entire thing was set up for some obsessed rich guy's entertainment? It could be entirely possible that there isn't any Holy Grail equivalent at all. From what you know, is Minaka crazy enough to...?"

"Yes." Waver said, answering the quest before he could finish asking it. "That bastard definitely has a few screws loose. Though I would suggest against writing the entire thing off as a rich guy's sick game. If Alaya felt the need to drop your ass into the middle of this, then that means that whatever is going down, it is a big enough threat to warrent the attention of the Will of Humanity."

"Either that, or Alaya felt like getting revenge on me for telling her to fuck off." Emiya grumbled.

Waver frowned. What about this situation would make Emiya say something like that? Being given a second chance at life isn't exactly something to be upset about. Especially when it didn't seem to cost him his soul. "The Will of Humanity isn't that petty."

"Since when have you had faith in humanity? Maybe I should be the one questioning whether or not you are the… *yawn* real thing." Emiya said, a long, childish yawn interrupting his words. "Waver, it's really late over here, and I haven't gotten much sleep lately. I'll try to get into contact with you again later. And tell Rin that I'm… alright."

"Sure. Try to be open at the same time tomorrow." Waver said.

"I'll try, but no promises. I'll talk to you later." Emiya said before hanging up.

"So, Emiya's back." Waver looked down at his phone, thinking about everything that he had just heard. His mouth slipped into a smirk. "Maybe there is still some hope left for humanity."

However, something about the whole thing was bothering him. It was something to do with Emiya's voice. It wasn't just young. It was almost like it was…

Waver's eyes widened and he quickly started to mess with his phone, sending a 'face time' call request back to the number Emiya had used to call him. After three rings, Emiya answered and Waver got his first good look at him as Emiya stared down at his own phone in shock, probably unfamiliar with the concept of video calls.

"Wa…Waver?" Emiya said, his eyes were wide with surprise. Or rather, her eyes were wide with surprise.

Waver couldn't help himself. He broke out laughing. "Oh my god! This is just too rich! The savage Second Magus Killer is now just a little girl!" Waver openly laughed, holding his side. "Holy crap. I've got to tell everyone. Zelretch is going to love this."

Emiya paled at the mention of the Wizard Marshal. "Waver, don't you dar…" She couldn't finish as Waver had already hung up on her. He left the apartment with a rare smile on his rough face. He just had to tell Reines about Emiya's predicament. His lady master would get a really kick out of it. She always did love to see other people suffering.

Waver was in such a good mood, he even forgot about his video games.

* * *

That night, Kuruse dreamed of battle.

The ring of metal striking against metal filled the air, so loud and rapid that it was nearly deafening. Kuruse watched in shocked admiration as the two male Sekirei fought against each other. Their speed, strength and skill were on a whole other level from anything she had ever seen before.

One of them was a spearman with a long blood red weapon that practically oozed bloodlust. The man wore an excited grin as he exchanged strikes with his opponent, as if he had never felt more alive than he did during battle. His red eyes seemed to shine from the reflection of the sparks flying off of the clashing weapons, and even in the dark his deep blue hair and clothes had been easy enough to spot.

The other fighter was a second tall man, one with darker skin and steel gray hair. Kuruse was shocked when she saw the man's weapons and realized they were the same black and white blades that she had seen her own master using back in the forest.

The fighting between the two was intense, far more intense than anything Kuruse had seen between any other Sekirei before. They continued to clash again and again without ever letting up, ripping apart the soccer field that they had been standing on. Even when the red spear would break one of the silver haired Sekirei's weapons, he would conjure another one up to replace it in the blink of an eye and just kept fighting.

"Wh…what's going on?" Kuro said, staring at the two fighters with wide eyes. "What are they?"

The blue haired man with the spear's eyes snapped towards Kuro at the sound of her voice. The look of a predator clear even at a distance. Kuro staggered back at the sight of those eyes before turning and running into the school building she had just came out of. The small girl ran for all she was worth, but it was no use.

Even as she ran down one of the halls, the blue haired man caught up to her. "Sorry kiddo, but we can't have any witnesses." The red spear shot through the dark, straight through Kuro's chest.

* * *

"Master!" Kuruse shouted, bolting up in bed, one hand going over her own chest as she struggled to get control of her breathing. "It… it was just a dream." She said, trying to convince herself of that, even though it had felt like something more than just a dream.

But before she could calm down, she noticed something missing. "Master?" She said as she looked around the room to find that her Ashikabi wasn't in bed with her. "Master? Master, where are you? Master!?" Kuruse said as she started to pull away blankets and pillows, looking for the small girl who was her master. It took her a few seconds to notice a sheet of paper on the nightstand.

'Dear Kuruse

I had to leave early in order to perform my duties guarding Hayato while he is at school. I'll be back around 4 pm. Try to take this time to rest and get familiar with your surroundings.

Kuro.'

"She… she already left?" Kuruse said, her bottom lip quivering as she realized she had overslept and missed her chance to see off her Ashikabi or guard her on her way to school. "At least she's alright."

Kuruse's mind drifted back to the bizarre dream and to the blue haired man with the spear. Or rather, her mind drifted back to the spear itself, and perhaps to the way that the man had been moving, the skill that he had shown with it. It all felt so very familiar to Kuruse, as if she had seen it before. As she thought about it, her body shifted into that same crouching stance that she had seen the man use and one of her tridents appeared in her hands.

The stance didn't work for her. Not with her trident. The weight of the weapon was too different from that strange red spear. "Gáe Bulg…" The name came to Kuruse, though she didn't know where it came from. She just knew it.

Gáe Bulg, the spear of mortal pain, the weapon of Cú Chulainn.

* * *

 **That God of War comment was a joke about the next God of War game, not the one that has been released. I didn't spoil the current game, just guesses of the plot that the next game is going to have. Considering that neither Tyr or Odin have even made an appearance, and that it is a God of War game, Kratos doing what he does is kind of a given and I don't feel like I have spoiled anything other than what didn't happen in this current game.**


	13. Chapter 13

"…Master." Kuruse whimpered to herself, as she lay on her back in her shared bed room, staring up as the ceiling fan circled above her. It had barely been two hours since she had first woken up to find that her Ashikabi had already left for school, but boredom and loneliness stretched it out until if felt like an eternity. Getting tired of watching the fan go round, she flipped over onto her stomach and buried her head in a pillow. "Please hurry back, Master."

"So, this is where you've been hiding out, new girl." Kuruse tilted her head back to find the twins, Mitsuha and Mitsuki standing in the doorway, along with Akitsu. The twins were still completely identical, wearing the exact same yellow sun dress. Kuruse wasn't even sure which one of them had been speaking, let alone which one was which.

Reflexively, Kuruse sprang up and backwards, not wanting to continue to leave the Sekirei mark on her back exposed to the three. Sadly, she had forgot to consider that she was currently on a bed instead of on ground level, so she fell off the side of the bed and toppled to the floor.

The twins burst into laughter at the display, as Kuruse was forced to push herself up off the floor. "Hey, no need to be so jumpy all the time, we don't bite." The twin on the left said, trying to stifle her giggles. "We just came around to check on you."

"We thought that you might be down in the dumps from having to be separated from you Ashikabi for the first time." Her sister said.

"We all know the feeling." The first said with a sad shrug.

"So, we thought we would take you shopping with us to pass the time." The sister on the right finished.

"Shopping?" Kuruse said, perking up a bit. She hadn't ever gone shopping before. From the television shows she had been able to watch, she had gathered that it was one of those activities that women were supposed to indulge in, but Koya hadn't ever allowed her to go shopping before. He had viewed her as a pest and wouldn't have let her out of his apartment, save for to chase after other Sekirei. However, her head sank a little when she remembered that she didn't have any money. "I can't. I lost my MBI ID card."

"That's alright, we can just use one of ours." The twin on the left said, waving off Kuruse's concern. "Besides, you really need some new clothes. A girl can't just have a single set you know. We have to look our best."

"Also, the ones you have on… kind of smell a little funny." The second sister said, fanning her hand in front of her nose. Kuruse flushed, realizing that she still smelled from her night sleeping in the alley. She hoped that her Ashikabi hadn't noticed.

"Now that you mention it, maybe we should all take a bath first." The first girl said, tapping her chin.

"No, that can wait till tonight." The other replied. "After all, I'm sure the new girl would rather take a bath with Kuro rather than just us."

"A…a b…bath with Master." Kuruse squeaked, imagining herself and Kuro squeezed together in the same kind of small bath tub that she had used in Koya's apartment. Kuro sitting in her lap with her soft pink hair resting against Kuruse's chest. The feel of her smooth wet skin.

The twins exchanged looks before bursting into laughter at the sight of the bright red flush spreading across the honey blond Sekirei's face. They were going to have some fun with this.

* * *

Kuruse had never been to the shopping district before. It was… an experience.

It was pretty crowded and loud. The constantly moving mass of humans was somewhat disconcerting for her, since everywhere they went people seemed to stare at her and her companions. The whispers that followed them around was enough to put her on edge. After all, she was fairly used to the idea that her enemies could be anywhere and anyone, so all the attention was making her paranoid.

Still, she couldn't deny that it was fun, going from store to store with the twins and Akitsu, trying on new clothes and looking at various shops. At one point in time they went into a pet store and the owner let Kuruse hold the cutest little kitten. The tiny thing looked like a miniature tiger, strips and all. Kuruse wanted to take him home with her, but they didn't know if the other girls' Ashikabi would allow for pets.

"Well this has been a productive afternoon." Mitsuki said proudly as the four sat down for lunch at one of the many eateries.

"Tell me about it, we got quite the haul." Mitsuha agreed, patting at one of the four large bags full of clothes. Despite what they said about going shopping to buy Kuruse some new clothes, they had gotten just as much for themselves and Akitsu as they had for the trident wielding girl.

"Yeah, this really has been… fun." Kuruse said, before taking a large sip from her milkshake and glancing over at her own bag of clothes.

Most of it was t-shirts with cute designs and nice skirts. There had been dresses that Kuruse had really wanted to try on, but all of them seemed to have zippers in the back that Kuruse had been unable to reach herself and was unwilling to ask for help. Even if they weren't her enemies, and she had warmed up to the twins far more than she thought she would, exposing her bare back to them felt far too dangerous. A single touch and a few muttered words and she could be terminated before she even realized what was going on. She had only just managed to unite with her true Ashikabi. She didn't want to do anything that might risk her chances of remaining by Kuro's side forever and ever. Not being able to try on the cuter dresses was an unfortunate sacrifice.

Though, at the twins' suggestion, she had grabbed some slightly less ordinary underwear. Kuruse didn't know much about it, but Mitsuha and Mitsuki had assured her that they would make Kuro happy. It didn't seem to make much sense, since usually, Kuro would not be able to see them, but the twins had insisted that it would help somehow.

"I'm glad you think so, because we have just about enough time to go to one last store before it is time to head back." Mitsuha said with a giggle.

"That's right, and we made sure to save the best for last." Mitsuki added, glancing across the road. Kuruse followed the twins' eyes to a store that they had passed by earlier. In the window displays were a variety of clothes. The clothes were a lot different than the ones the rest of the people in the streets were walking around in. They were a lot more attention grabbing, with bright colors, frills and funny hats. Above the shop window was the stores name in large boxed letter, though Kuruse couldn't read it, since it was in English.

'Otherworldly Threads.'

"Another clothing store?" Kuruse said, not entirely sure what made this one special when compared to the others they had seen thus far.

'''No, it's a cosplay shop.''' The twins said together before breaking into laughter.

Kuruse could only frown, unsure of what was going on. "What's cosplay?"

* * *

Kuruse couldn't help but to let out a gasp as the four Sekirei entered the shop. She didn't know how, but it seemed so much larger and more grand on the inside than it had looked on the outside. Several dozen, maybe as much as a hundred racks full of different costumes filled the majority of the area with the walls dedicated to hats and props of all kinds. Witches hats, crowns, helmets, capes, toy swords and wands, and other things like jewelry and bracelets, as well as some weird things, like the same kind of collars she had seen back at the pet store, chains and other things that Kuruse didn't exactly know the name or purpose off.

After a moment of looking around, she noticed that the store was almost completely empty. Besides Kuruse and the other Sekirei, the only person in there was an older gentleman who was standing behind the register and reading from a rather old looking book.

As the door swung close behind them the man looked up and gave them a smile. "Welcome. What can I do for you young ladies?" He said, putting his book down on the table as he grated them.

The old man was a kind looking individual with well-kept silver-gray hair, worn skin and deep red eyes. In contrast to the contains of his store, which was mostly colorful and unique, he was dressed in a professional black business suit, complete with a tie and white undershirt. Though for some reason that Kuruse couldn't explain, even though he looked like a genuinely kind old gentleman, she felt a pricking running up her spine as she looked into his red eyes.

'''We're looking for something for our new friend here.''' The twins said, each of them putting a hand on one of Kuruse's shoulders and pushing for forward a step.

"Well then, feel free to look around. I'm sure you'll find something that catches your fancy, and don't hesitate to ask if you need assistance." The elder said, still as cheerful as can be.

'''We will.''' The twins said together before they practically dived into the racks of clothes, pulling out costume after costume to compare looks, sizes and feels.

Kuruse moved along the outside of the racks, pulling out an outfit here or there to get a closer look. Many of them was far more vibrant than the things she had seen in other stores that day; bright pinks and purples, dark reds and oranges, several mixed shades of blue. Strange things with cat ears or little wing clasps, one with chains similar to the ones on Akitsu's dress. None of them were things that Kuruse could really see herself wearing. Though there were others that were even stranger. Clothes that had metal armlets, integrated breast plates, tassets and small shoulder pauldrons, making them a mixture of clothing and medieval armor.

It was one of these more unique outfits that eventually caught her eye.

It was a deep blue short dress, with shorter sleeves and a frilly white underskirt. The metal plates attached to the skirt and upper dress were all polished steel and carried an odd red symbol, three disjointed shapes that when put together seemed to be forming a spear of sorts. Kuruse didn't know why, but for some reason, the symbol reminded her of Kuro.

"Has something caught your interest?" The old man asked Kuruse, giving her what she couldn't help but think was a knowing smile.

"Um, yes… sort of." Kuruse said, stepping back and holding out the outfit so that the man could get a better look at it. The man gave a loud humming sound, but otherwise didn't say anything. "Sir, this symbol. What does it mean?" Kuruse asked, pointing towards the spear-like mark.

"Meaning? I'm sure that it has a meaning to the right people, but it isn't something that is explained in a few words." The man said with a chuckle. "Nearly every costume in my store is based off of some old fairytale or legend. The story behind this one is a long one. If I started to tell it to you now, we would still be here talking about it long after the sun goes down."

"I see." Kuruse said, clearly not getting it. She couldn't imagine anything taking that long to explain, especially something as simple as a few shapes on a piece of metal. She suspected that they might not have had any meaning at all and that the man was just acting, the same way that Minaka did whenever he talked about 'the Age of the Gods', never really explaining what he meant by it.

The old man's smile turned more cocky as he gave the girl a sideways glance. "Tell me young lady, are you any interested in legends?"

"Well, not really." Kuruse admitted weakly, glancing over at the twins who were comparing what appeared to be nearly identical white dresses with thick purple bands attached to them. She wished that they would come over and save her from this strange man. Nice as he was, something about him made her feel uncomfortable.

"Really? Now that is a pity. There is nothing better than a good legend." The man said, not at all put off by Kuruse's disinterest. "Nothing can teach you more about humanity than the legends that they tell. Such fascinating creatures."

Kuruse was struck by the old man's odd words. It made it sound of if he himself wasn't human, or that he knew that she wasn't. Though that didn't seem possible. He couldn't have been a Sekirei. The very oldest looking Sekirei still only looked as though they were in their mid-twenties or brushing up against thirty. This man looked as if he was seventy at the very least.

"What? Are you not convinced? Well then, tell me this, what do you think is the meaning of life? Why do the humans exist?" The old man asked her. Kuruse was caught off guard by the question, not really knowing how to answer. She'd never really been one for contemplating the meaning of life. She had usually had more dire things to worry about. Seeing her confusion, the old man laughed. "Don't worry if you can't answer. It took the greatest minds mankind had to offer over two thousand years to puzzle it out. And do you know what the answer is…?" The old man paused for dramatic effect before finally declaring the answer. "There isn't any."

"W…what?"

"There was no greater reason for why mankind exists. No divine purpose for them to fulfill. They were just a freak accident. They were never supposed to exist, and nobody wanted them. They were nothing more than a disruption to the greater order of the World." The old man said, seeming giddy with excitement. "And that is what makes them so amazing. Because their lives have no inherent meaning, they were forced to decide on a meaning for themselves. Something that had never been done before. In a stagnant world ruled by an oppressive divine order, they created something new to work towards; ideals. Honor, greatness, renown, kindness, wealth, progress, faith, and my personal favorites, love and justice, the ideals to which many humans have chosen to dedicate their lives to. This is why I love legends. Every hero pursues their own ideals to their dying breaths in hopes of somehow achieving them, and because if this, they are immortalized within the dreams of future generations. Can you imagine a more worthy existence?"

"Ah…" Kuruse didn't know what to day. The man had pushed past being merely suspicious and now seemed like a lunatic. How exactly do you deal with a man like this? Takami usually just hit Minaka with a clipboard whenever he was acting like this, but that wasn't really an option here. Kuruse didn't have a clipboard and a trident would probably be excessive.

Seeing the look that the young Sekirei was giving him, the man started to laugh loud enough to get the other girls' attention. "You think I'm crazy, don't you? Well that's alright. When you get as old as I am, you're bound to become a little crazy."

"Hey Kuruse, did you find something there?" One of the twins asked her. Kuruse didn't know whether to be relieved that she wasn't alone with the old man anymore, or annoyed that she yet again didn't know which twin was which anymore. She would just guess that this one was Mitsuha. It didn't seem to matter much anyways.

"So, you are going for the knight in shining armor look huh?" Mitsuki said as she looked over the costume.

"I'm sure that Kuro will love seeing you in it." Mitsuha said, causing Kuruse to blush a little.

"Oh, do you have another friend who is interested in these kinds of things?" The old man asked them.

"Yeah, a little girl name Kuro." Mitsuha said with a nodded. "She's just the cutest little thing."

"It was sooo much fun to play dress up with her." Mitsuki nodded in agreement with her sister. Kuruse had to hold back a scowl, hearing that the two of them had done such things with HER Ashikabi.

"Well in that cause, how about I give you something special that you can pass on to her as a present?" The old man said to Kuruse, with a smile that was a little too big for his face. "Think of it as my little way of thanking you for listening to an old man's ramblings."

* * *

Hayato knew that he should have felt relieved that things were going so well, and that Kuro had not had problems blending in at school for another day, but he was too busy being completely disgusted by it.

While at any ordinary high school, the sudden addition of a ten year old child genius would have caused major waves as individuals wanted to get the know the child better and show them that there was nothing to be afraid of and that everyone was friendly, at Hayato's high school, the school for the brats of the filthy reach, they had all looked at little Kuro with the same calculating eyes, evaluating just how much a friendship with her was worth and decided that she was worth nothing to them. Being a child genius from supposedly humble origins, they had labeled her a charity case, and in their social games, people without at least a ten million-dollar figure associated with their names weren't worth interacting with. So, Hayato's classmates flat out ignored Kuro. Even worse, some of them threw subtle insults at her, trying to make her feel unwelcome, though they seemed to go right over the girl's head.

Those brainless spoiled brats were insulting one of his Sekirei. It was enough to leave Hayato furious. He had controlled himself in class, but now that school was over, the frustration was boiling over. He needed a distraction.

"Mutsu, I think we should try to find some more of the unwinged Sekirei tonight." Hayato said as they got out of his limo back at his house. "The sooner the last of the Sekirei have been winged, the sooner the Sekirei Plan can start for real, correct?"

Mutsu looked down at him, cocking a single eyebrow. It was clear from his expression that he knew that Hayato was trying to cover up his bad mood, but he didn't call attention to it. "That is correct." Mutsu said with a nodded. "Do you want me to gather up the others?"

"With Kuro's abilities to track other Sekirei, we won't need a large search party." Hayato said looking over at Kuro.

"Hm… I've only ever seen one Sekirei who hasn't already been winged before, so I can't say I'll be able to tell which ones have or haven't been winged from afar, but I can find them, and I can make sure we aren't being ambushed." Kuro said in her usual manner, that being a rather stiff impression of what she probably thought a little girl was supposed to act like.

"That's perfectly fine. If we run across an already winged Sekirei we can decide whether we want to just ignore them or try to remove the competition." Hayato said. His main goal was to finish gathering up as many of the unwinged Sekirei as he could before the main event started. Until then, he was not as interested in fighting the other Ashikabi. If anything, that would just take away from the main event.

"Very well. Who do you plan on taking with you this time?" Mutsu asked the young Ashikabi.

"Let go with Himeko for offense and Taki for utility." Hayato started listing off the Sekirei he planned on taking with him. "We should likely take Akitsu along in case of emergencies and then the twins to keep a pair of eyes on her. And of course, yourself and Kuro. That should be more than enough. Though I suppose if Kuro is going, Kuruse is going to insist on coming along as well."

Eight Sekirei was still a large number, even if you consider that neither Kuro or Taki were direct combatants, but Hayato doubted he'd be able to convince Mutsu to allow for a smaller party. Still, it was better than showing up with twenty Sekirei in tow. It was hard to enjoy the game when the odds were so heavily stacked in his favor. He tried to keep the fights mostly one on one when the fights were even necessary, but his Sekirei were so enthusiastic about being the one to do it that it often dissolved into an internal conflict, not just being awkward, but also giving the target a chance to get away.

Luckily, Mutsu was more than content to remain a purely defensive player rather than fighting against every opponent they came across. Not that Hayato didn't have pride in his first Sekirei, it's just that the man was frankly too OP, capable of leveling entire buildings, even without the use of his more unique abilities. Hayato had seen him carve a ten-foot-long gash in solid concrete with a single swing of his sword. Mutsu himself told Hayato that the full use of his power wasn't something that he could use inside of the city, as he didn't wish to be responsible for how many deaths it would cause. Allowing him to fight would have sucked all the fun out of it right then and there. When Mutsu said that the single digit Sekirei were generally a tier above the rest when it came to raw power, it wasn't just hot air. Either him or Akitsu could likely hold their own even if five or six ordinary Sekirei tried to fight them at once, unless a Norito was involved, and even then, it wouldn't be a one-sided fight.

It was the reason why Hayato had such an advantage over all the other Ashikabi, because he was the only one who had managed to wing one of the single digits. However, that didn't mean he would always be the only one.

According to Mutsu, number zero one wasn't a part of Sekirei Plan, zero two was a non-combatant type, zero three worked directly with MBI and was therefore already spoken for, and zero eight had died years back. This left three combat type single digits, all of whom were still as of yet unwinged, even though they had been released before all the others. Each of them had managed to remain unwinged for nearly three years, if not more.

Hayato had long had his mind on those three, however actually getting at them wasn't easy. Without a way to track them down, he didn't have a reasonable way of dealing with them. He could send out search parties to find them, but unless either Akitsu or Mutsu were in those parties, they didn't stand much of a chance of dealing with the single digits. Numerous times his Sekirei had been intercepted by number zero six, the fire Sekirei, Homura, only to be outmatched and forced to retreat. Even in the few times when Akitsu had been there to match him, he would just slip away before reinforcements could arrive, moving into a more populated area where they couldn't fight, the coward.

However, with the introduction of Kuro and her ability to track down other Sekirei, that would change. He would finally be able to organize a plan for winging the final three members of the single digits, drastically improving his odds of winning the Sekirei Plan. Today would be Kuro's test run, to see just how well she can pinpoint the Sekirei's position and track individuals. After that he would work out how to get a hold of the real prizes, since beyond tracking them down, he would need to lure them into an area where they would be able to incapacitate them long enough to wing them without making a scene. The incident with the green girl was poorly handled, causing both unnecessary damage, a lot of headache, and costing him his chance of winging that particular Sekirei and nearly costing him one of his Sekirei. Hayato wasn't planning on making the same mistake again.

"Tonight, huh." Kuro said, looking up at the sky as she followed behind Hayato.

"Is something the matter with doing it tonight?" Hayato asked the young Sekirei.

"No, not really." Kuro said with a shake of her head. "It's just that since there is still school tomorrow, we will need to be back early so that you can get a full night's sleep, so if we want to have much time to search as possible, we will have to leave pretty early. Which means I probably won't have time to go buy groceries and cook dinner. I suppose I could make something light to tide everyone over until we get back and then have dinner afterwards, if someone can get the groceries."

"Ah… yes… I'm sure we can find someone to get the groceries for you." Hayato said, an eyebrow twitching. He was still getting used to the idea that the small girl was for some reason a master chef. It probably wouldn't take too much convincing to get one of the other girls to pick up whatever ingredients Kuro asked for.

Climbing the steps to his home, Hayato pushed open the door and was met with what to him was a rather common sight, that of Akitsu standing their waiting for him, dressed in whatever outfit the twins had convinced her to wear that day. "Welcome home, Master." Akitsu said with a bow.

Before Hayato could respond he heard a choking sound behind him and turned to see Kuro staring at the ice Sekirei with wide eyes and a slacked jaw.

* * *

Akitsu stood in front of Kuro, wearing a very familiar black dress with purple trimmings, and matching long gloves and boots. A dark purple blind fold with a design reminiscent of an eye covered the Sekirei mark on her forehead, and small chains jingled from where they were attached to her waist.

She was dressed exactly like Rider once had.

On top of being shocking in its own right, it also meant something even more terrifying. Waver hadn't been joking about telling the Wizard Marshal about what had happened to her, and the True Ancestor had already tracked her down.

'''Master, Kuro, you're back!''' The twins shouted as they ran towards the door, dressed in very similar outfits, only theirs were white instead of black, and with pretty white hairbands instead of the intimidating blindfold.

Kuro had never seen them before, but he assumed that if Akitsu was dressed as Medusa, then the twins were dressed as the other two Gorgon sisters, Stheno and Euryale. He briefly recalled the history of Medusa, the flawed Goddess of beauty who was not born with a Goddess's eternal youth. It actually fit with Akitsu's own story quite well, minus the being cursed by Athena and turned into a monster.

"Mas…Kuro, you're back." Kuruse said, entering the room behind the two sisters, and when Kuro saw what she was wearing, her mind truly went blank.

Kuruse was dressed in an outfit that matched what Saber's armor would have looked like, if it had included a miniskirt and shorter sleeves. The command seal design that had once been on Shirou's hand displayed on the breastplate for all to see. Will Kuruse had some physical characteristics similar to Saber, she was undoubtedly better endowed than the King of Knights. The end result being that she looked like a more sexed up version of Kuro's former Servant, and Kuro couldn't help but to blush.

Kuro tried to forcibly control herself and managed to do so just enough to recognize the fact that the armor wasn't just for show. A few enchantments were present to protect Kuruse from a fatal blow aimed for the chest. However, there was also an enchantment that increased the ease in which the skirt would be flipped up in the wind, despite having metal plates on it. The knowledge of which just caused Kuro to blush even harder.

"Do… do you like it?" Kuruse asked hesitantly, squirming around in a rather adorable fashion.

Kuro swallowed hard before replying. "It looks good on you."

'''Huh, so this is the kind of thing Kuro's into.''' The twins said together looking between the two. "Well, then she should really like what the new girl got for her." "That's for sure."

Kuruse swallowed and brought out a shopping back from behind her back. "I… I wasn't sure what you would like, but… the store keeper was kind enough to suggest something. I really hope you like it." She said, handing Kuro the back.

Kuro looked down into the back and just like that, all of the blood that had been pumping though her head suddenly drained away. She recognized the cloth that made up the costume inside of the bag in an instead. She nearly broke into tears.

'The Shroud of Martin… what did Zelretch do to you?'

* * *

 **Regardless what it looks like, it is still a powerful defensive item. Which will leave Kuro is a bad spot. Either she wears it, or she admits to having pride.**


	14. Chapter 14

Kuro remembered once hearing someone describe Zelretch as an unwilling god. That is to say, God with all his infinite power and infinite knowledge, but without the infinite will.

Zelretch was definitely one of the most powerful being in existence. Through the second True Magic, he could access an unlimited amount of raw power, could bend the laws of space and time, and possessed the shared knowledge discovered by all of his parallel universe selves over his thousands of years of life. He was pretty much as close as you could get to omnipowerful and omnipotent. He had the kind of power and knowledge that could let a guy do anything and everything he wanted… except that he couldn't.

Zelretch was bound by the nature of his being.

He was one of the Apostle Ancestors turned by the Crimson Moon itself for one reason and one reason only, to subjugate humanity. Which was a problem, because he actually kind of like the humans. He found their ability to do whatever it was that they desired and choose the purpose of their own existence to be fascinating. Which was why Zelretch had always wanted to help keep humanity alive so that he could continue to observe them.

However, this went against the purpose of his existence. The Ancestor could only act in a way that subjugated humanity. He had troubled over this fact for years, unable to help the humans who he so enjoyed watching, until one day he finally realized a solution.

Just help people in a way that harmlessly subjugates them.

By performing acts that humiliated, put down, or endanger the humans, he could do things that ultimately helped them. It was through this round-about logic that Zelretch saved the lives of millions of people… and also made them flinch whenever they heard his name. It actually amused him so much that he started to study cultural trends in order to better deliver his 'assistance' to the people.

Zelretch was super chaotic good. He will turn your car into a giant pink dildo so you don't drink and drive and die in a car accident.

Kuro had to remind herself of this as she took stock of her situation.

Providing her with the Shroud of Martin was an incredible boon. Its defensive capabilities put anything that modern science had managed to create thus far to shame, but at the same time…

'Pride has no place on the battlefield.' Kuro had to remind herself, trying her best not to imagine what she must look like.

The Wizard Marshal had changed the Holy Saint's Shroud into something that by all rights should have been illegal. The black strips of clothing around her chest barely covered as much as what one would expect to see in a bikini top, leaving her entire midriff and the Sekirei mark on it exposed, and the tight black leggings were cut short and had large rips on the inside of her thighs. The only thing that was properly covered were her arms for which the tight long sleeves reached down to her wrist in a similar way to the way Archer had worn it, only with pieces of the cloth left loose behind her like a torn-up cape. Finally, a belt which had its own piece of the Shroud attached to it in such a way as to cover the tops of her legs in the same way a knight's leggings would.

All in all, she probably looked like a tiny female Archer, something that sickened him… her… whatever. The most disturbing part was how snugly it had fit her. How that old bastard knew her body's shape so well, Kuro didn't know and didn't want to know.

The problem was, as bad as the outfit looked, he was still highly functional from a combat stand point. Complete freedom of movement, and a good deal of protection for her arms and legs, which would always be at the most risk in combat. Realistically, any place that wasn't covered by the Shroud might as well be nude from a defensive stand point. Normal clothes, even reinforced, would not stop much in the fights that she was likely to be a part of.

It's just… a bit more coverage would have been appreciated. She thanked her lucky stars it was summer because this outfit wasn't going to keep anyone warm.

Hayato, his chosen eight Sekirei, and his butler, were all crammed together into his limo. While Alfred drove, and Mutsu sat shotgun, the rest of them were left in the back, eight people to six seats. The twins and Akitsu squeezed together, three people in two seats, with the twins on either side of the ice Sekirei, and Kuro was made to sit in Kuruse's lap.

Kuro would like to believe that Kuruse was so tense because she was nerves about being in the crowded car, or because they would likely soon be going to battle, but even she couldn't be that willfully dense. Kuruse loved her. Of course she did, her nature compelled her too. Kuro knew enough about Sekirei to be able to say that with almost one hundred percent certainty, and Kuro wasn't sure how to react to that. Kuruse wasn't human, and as such her emotional needs were different.

She fundamentally understood that, but it still seemed wrong. Loving someone not because of one's memories of the person or any level of cognitive admiration, but simply due to a physical impulse. If just didn't feel like that should be what love was supposed to be about, and according to the twins, following their biological instincts sometimes got nasty for the Sekirei. The Sekirei's understanding of love was simply different than that of humans, closer to the thoughts of an animal that just desired to hump everything that they conceivably could rather than the emotions of a highly intelligent being. Though at the same time, to reject what Kuruse was feeling would be the height of cruelty.

Sekirei who had been winged desire nothing more than to make their Ashikabi happy, and to prevent them from doing this caused them horrible emotional torment.

"Do you sense any Sekirei nearby?" Hayato asked Kuro after they have driven for a little while, speaking a little louder than normal since the windows were down in order to let Kuro find the 'scent'.

"Yes." Kuro admitted. The Sekirei were easy to track. They didn't hide themselves like Magus or Servants did. Everywhere they went they left behind a trail of their Od, and the Od was more often than not very distinct. "There are six of them nearby. Two of them are weapon types, daggers and staff. The other four are elemental ability types." Kuro said before taking a deeper breath, trying to parse out the different elements. "One of them is some kind of wind-type, though its pretty faint, sound or smell perhaps. The other three are water, fire and… entropy."

"Entropy? What's that?" Himeko asked, being unfamiliar with the word.

"Entropy is the measurement of disorder. It represents how all matter in the universe tends towards its more chaotic stat. It is also sometimes used to mean decay or death." Hayato explained to his confused Sekirei. A smile was spreading over his face, and it looked as if there were stars in his eyes. A Sekirei who could cause decay sounded really cool.

"Fire huh. It's probably that guy again." Mitsuki grumbled, her head falling down onto Akitsu's shoulder.

"He always does seem to just be there whenever we find a new Sekirei. So annoying." Mitsuha agreed, mirroring her sister's action. If there was one benefit to their new outfits, it was that they had slightly different headbands, making it possible to tell them apart.

Hayato ignored the commentary about the fire user. "Can you tell what their relative strengths are like? Which do you think we should go after?"

Kuro closed her eyes and focused. "The two weapon and the sound user don't seem very strong. Fighting them would be the safer bet. The other three are much stronger. The fire user and the Sekirei that smell of entropy are pretty close together. Not close enough to be in a group, but the moment you start fighting one, the other will definitely notice. As for the water user, I think it is best to avoid them."

"And why is that?" Hayato asked, wanting as much information as he could get before they moved. Kuro was already proving his worth to him.

"While Akitsu and Taki both have water-based abilities, this Sekirei's abilities are a lot more pure than theirs. It might be that they can control water in all states rather than just ice and mist, and in range combat, Himeko would be at a disadvantage." Kuro explained.

"So, you are saying that they could act as a hard counter to the forces that I have brought with me today, save for Mutsu and Kuruse." Hayato said, getting what Kuro was suggesting.

"Maybe, maybe not. Better not to risk it if it isn't necessary." Kuro said.

"The Decay Sekirei it is then. If he is who I think he is, he will try to interfere when we attempt to wing the other one. When he does that, we can get them both. Alfred, pull over somewhere." Hayato called forward to the butler.

"Of course, sir." Alfred said, getting off the main road before slipping into a back alley behind a large condo complex, hidden from the street.

"We will move along the rooftops. Once we find them, Taki will create a thick mist to hide what is going on from the civilians and we will shepherd them into a place where we can better control the encounter. Understood?" Hayato told them as they all got out of the limo.

"Yes." All of the Sekirei save for Kuruse said. The trident wielding Sekirei gave Kuro a worrying look before slowly nodding, but still didn't vocalize her confirmation.

"Alright then, lets move." The boy Ashikabi said, a bit of cheer and excitement in his voice as he was picked up by Mutsu. The entire group then jumped, rising six stories up into the air and lighting down on the rooftop of the condo building. All save for Kuro.

Kuro watched the impressive feat of physical strength and immediately knew that she wouldn't be able to match it. So instead she went to a corner where the build bent around a common back yard shared by the occupants and did a wall jump. It took three jumps for her to make it up to the roof. It was still an inhuman display of strength but falling short when compared to the others. When she got there, she found the others waiting for her.

"Sorry. I'm not as strong as the rest of you." Kuro admitted. While she could keep up with any of them in a fight due to a difference in skill and how diverse her weaponry and tactics were, when it came to raw physical power, her body was still lacking muscle mass.

"I didn't realize the difference outside of combat would be that great as well." Hayato said with a frown. "I suppose you will just have to be carried as well."

Kuro had to admit he was right. If she didn't want to drag the rest of them back, then she would have to get Kuruse to carry her. After the honey blond girl obligingly picked her up, Hayato asked for directions to their target and they were off, Kuro only slightly embarrassed by being carried like a princess by a girl who was dressed as a knight.

She wondered if this was how Rin had felt with Archer.

* * *

"Thanks for the ride. I'll call you once I'm done." Karasuba said as she jumped out of the convertible rather than opening the door, landing right in front of the open archway for the Izumo Inn. She left her sword behind in the car. She wouldn't need it, and it would only cause problems if she ran into the old widow anyways.

"Do you really not want me to follow you?" Natsuo asked the silver haired woman. He was her Ashikabi now, so she would need him present if she wanted to use her full strength.

"Don't worry. I just came to talk to her for today. There won't be any fighting." Karasuba said seeming actually a little bit happy, and not in the about to kill someone way. She had a real gentle smile on her face. It was amazing the kind of difference it made in her appearance, changing her from terrifying to actually quite beautiful. "I wonder how Muu-chan has been doing. She's always been a bit of a scatter…"

Before she was even done speaking, and out of control hose from inside of the yard sprayed water all over the MBI's dog, soaking her clothes through. "Oops, I'm sorry!" A brown-haired girl dressed in a shrine maiden outfit said as she regained control over the hose.

Natsuo paled and quickly pressed down on the gas, putting some distance between himself and what he believed to be a bomb about to go off. Though if he would have just stayed for another few seconds he would have heard the normally scary chuckle of Karasuba sounding much more genuine. "So you are still a scatterbrain. Huh, Muu-chan."

The shrine maiden girl's eyes widened, not an uncommon response for people who just ran into Karasuba, but almost uniquely, she gave a squeal of joy instead of terror and jumped forward to give the Kuro Sekirei a hug.

* * *

Rin didn't know what time it was. Her workshop didn't have any windows and she never installed any clocks. Didn't really matter. She rarely ever left her workshop anymore. She worked nearly all the time, and when she was too tired to continue, she would sleep until she woke up and got back to work again. Morning, evening, night, didn't matter. Her sleep schedule had become none existent.

She was trying to find a way to create a more powerful bounded field and attaching it to a item, in the same way that Avalon had existed as a portable bounded field attached to Excalibur's scabbard.

Bounded fields, while powerful and flexible tools, had always suffered due to the fact that they were always anchored down to a fixed location. The only notable acceptations were a few Noble Phantasms like Avalon and Reality Marbles, both of which next to impossible to obtain or use.

"Failure number 247." Rin said with a sigh, brushing aside the stone she had spent the last few days engraving her formulacraft into. She would need to start again. She had been working on this same project for the last eleven years. Ever since the world started to go to hell. Ever since she finally accepted that Shirou was really not coming back.

She had never wanted to believe it. Maybe she had always thought that Shirou was just too stubborn to die. Maybe she didn't want to believe that someone who's life seemed to be filled with such meaning could simply disappear, and have the world continue to spin in his absence.

She had told everyone that Shirou was still out there. That he was just in hiding and that when the time came, and something happened, he wouldn't be able to help himself but than to jump out and try to save the day like the idiot hero they all knew he was.

She had kept telling herself that up until something real did happen. All around the world, the dead apostles began to become more and more active, wiping out city after city, unusual weather patterns started to occur all over the globe. Emergency after emergency happened and thousands of people died, and yet still, there was no Shirou. That was what hammered it in for her, that Shirou was really gone.

Rin went into a depression, not finding the motivation to do anything. She didn't eat well, she hardly slept. She just stared off into the distance and cursed the world for all she was worth. Shirou had been one of the few people who she had ever let close to her… no, he had been the only person she had ever let get close to her. One of the rare, genuinely good people who were involved in the Moonlite world.

It was around this time that she came up with what she would later be embarrassed to call a plan.

She would use the Second True Magic to search the parallel worlds for one in which Shirou was still alive and they were together. Then she would go to that world… and she would kill and replace herself.

It was a plan so stupid that Archer would probably laugh at her for even considering it. Being present when a parallel version of yourself died caused huge backlash on your soul through the resonance between two like souls. Killing oneself with your own hands would likely destroy your soul entirely. That had been Archer's own goal after all. But she hadn't really been thinking things through.

She would have done it too, if Ruby hadn't realized what she had been planning and tattled on her to Zelretch. The old vampire went and put a stop to Rin's plan before she could kill herself in more ways than one.

Rin had exploded at him, throwing everything she had at the undead bastard. She had made a god honest attempt to kill him and erase him from existence, but Zelretch didn't fight back. He just waited and watched until she released the last of her pent-up sorrow and had reduced herself into a crying mess. She was kindly asked to move her workshop away from the Clocktower afterwards due to all the damage she caused, though they didn't have the balls to try to bill her for it.

After that, Rin started to adjust a bit better. She decided that if Shirou wasn't around to help save the day, then she would just have to find a way to protect humanity herself, and in doing so, carry on his memory.

While Rin was looking back over her notice, trying to find a better way for spreading the contained bounded field into its environment, a loud knock sounded at the door. "Go away." Rin shouted, not bothering to get up. She wasn't exactly in the mood for company, but the banging just kept going.

"Maybe you should just answer it." Ruby said as the Kaleidostick flouted around above Rin's head. "It might be important."

"There can't possibly be anything more important than this research." Rin told the overpowered child's toy. Ruby was quiet for a few moments before speaking up again.

"Um… Rin."

"What is it now?"

"They are dismantling your barriers."

"WHAT!?" Rin shouted, checking on the bounded fields that protected her workshop from being breached. Sure enough, three of the twelve layers of her defenses had already been compromised. Even as she tried to active one of them to repulse the intruder, it disappeared before she could make proper use of it. Formulas that should have taken days to crack were being torn to pieces.

There were only a few people in the world who had the kind of skill in formula craft needed to do something like this… "Waver." Rin growled as she got up and went for the door, throwing it open and blasting the man square in the chest with a curse, sending him flying backwards ten feet.

"Owe." Waver gasped as he pushed himself up and rubbed at the spot on his chest were the spell had hit him. "That really hurt."

"Where do you get off coming here unannounced and taking apart my barriers!?" Rin snapped at him. "You should be glad I don't kill you right now!"

Waver was a highly skilled magus. However, in a match of power, Rin was stomp him into the ground. He should have known better than to mess with her, but for some reason the guy didn't ever seem to care about pissing people off.

"How am I supposed to come announced when there isn't any way to get into contact with you. You know how long it took me to even find this place?" Waver complained. "Besides, I did knock. You should have just answered the bloody door."

"What do you want?" Rin asked the man, not acknowledging his points.

"I got good news. And before I even tell it to you am going to just say that I am completely serious and that I would never make this shit up." Waver said, looking Rin dead in the eyes. "Emiya's back."

"…What?" Rin's anger melted away and her voice was barely above a whisper.

"He died those sixteen years ago, but his soul has come back. Right now, he is in Japan, suck in a sort of kind of Grail War while being a sort of kind of Servant." Waver said, pulling out his phone. A wide smirk spread across his face. "He called me last night… and I got pictures." He flicked his fingers across the phone's screen before handing it over to Rin herself. "He's supposed to call again tonight. Keep the phone. I'll get myself a new one."

Rin looked down at the picture to see the embarrassed face of a young girl staring back at her. "She's adorable!" Ruby squealed from over Rin's shoulder. "I can sense the appearance of a new MAGICAL GIRL!"

"He's back." Rin said, still in a bit of shock. But her shock was quickly replaced with rage. "…I'm going to fucking kill him!"

* * *

 **A quick second chapter since some people were getting anal about that the last one was basically filler. I would argue that it was still important because it was establishing a friendship between Kuruse and the twins, but that's just me.**

 **No what I say about Zelretch isn't canon, nor do I really care.** **It's just that if you have a world ending threat going around and you have a guy with infinite power and infinite knowledge, who really likes humanity, than you have to ask yourself why the world is coming to an end. It's like for the Avengers movie and Dr Strange. Why didn't he just fix everything with his magical time travel stone before everyone got their shit pushed in? My solution being that he is simply not allowed to directly help them by his own nature. It also gives a good excuse for him acting odd, other than simply that living for ten thousand years probably does things to a man's sanity.**

 **Actually, if I say something that isn't canon, I don't really care. You can tell me, but I'm unlikely to even bother editing it if it was unimportant, and if I based story elements on wrong assumptions about the canon then you can be damn sure I will just ignore it and continue on with the story. Fate just has too my canon to it to be bothered with the details when only one or two people out of ten thousand even notice.**


End file.
